NHS South East London Integrated Care Board (SEL ICB) is seeking to commission a Winter Access Hubs Service to provide additional same-day primary care capacity for Bromley residents during periods of seasonal demand and winter system pressures.
The service will deliver timely assessment and treatment for patients requiring urgent same-day primary care access through a geographically distributed network of hub locations across Bromley. The service is intended to support general practice, urgent care and acute services by managing appropriate patients within primary care settings and reducing avoidable attendances at Urgent Treatment Centres and Emergency Departments.
Key features of the service include:
•Provision of additional same-day GP-led capacity for winter illness and other urgent primary care presentations.
•Delivery of predominantly face-to-face consultations through convenient hub locations across the borough.
•Direct booking and referral pathways from General Practice, NHS 111 and Urgent Treatment Centres.
•Integration with community pharmacy, self-referral pathways and wider neighbourhood services to ensure patients receive care in the most appropriate setting.
•Flexible deployment of capacity in response to emerging winter demand and system pressures.
•Use of shared digital solutions and GP clinical systems to support integrated patient care and continuity of information.
•Collection and reporting of activity, utilisation, patient outcomes and service impact data to support ongoing service evaluation and improvement.
The service forms part of Bromley's winter resilience arrangements and aims to improve access to urgent primary care, reduce pressure on urgent and emergency care services, and support delivery of the NHS objective of providing timely same-day assessment in community settings.
This is a 3 months contract (subject to change).
The notice relates to the provision of a Winter Access Hubs Service for patients registered with a Bromley GP practice.
The commissioner is seeking a provider capable of delivering a resilient, responsive and integrated same-day primary care service throughout the winter period, supporting both in-hours and out-of-hours demand and operating as a key component of Bromley's winter resilience plan.
Under the contract, the provider will be expected to:
•Deliver approximately 7,000 additional same-day primary care appointments throughout the winter operational period (Dec 26 - Jan/Feb 27).
•Operate a network of accessible hub locations distributed across the four Bromley Integrated Neighbourhood Team footprints.
•Provide predominantly face-to-face consultations delivered by appropriately qualified General Practitioners.
•Accept and manage referrals from General Practice following clinical triage, together with referrals from NHS 111 and Urgent Treatment Centres.
•Ensure all clinically urgent patients are assessed on the same day where appropriate.
•Maintain sufficient resilience, workforce capacity and business continuity arrangements to respond to fluctuations in demand and winter pressures.
•Support appropriate utilisation of community pharmacy, self-care, self-referral pathways and wider primary care services to maximise the effectiveness of the service.
•Utilise EMIS and associated NHS digital systems to facilitate consultation recording, referral management and consultation write-back to registered GP practices.
•Undertake quality assurance, clinical audit and service evaluation activities to support continuous improvement and demonstrate impact on system performanceThe provider must demonstrate:
a) Experience of delivering large-scale same-day primary care services in Bromley.
b) The ability to mobilise and operate services across multiple locations in Bromley.
c) Effective relationships with Bromley General Practice, Primary Care Networks and urgent care partners.
d) Robust clinical governance, safeguarding and information governance arrangements.
e) The capability to work flexibly with commissioners to adjust capacity and service delivery in response to changing patterns of demand
f) Access to Bromley healthcare estate to support provision of the service.
The provider will be expected to work collaboratively with Bromley General Practices, Primary Care Networks, NHS 111, Urgent Treatment Centres, Community Pharmacy providers and other health and care partners to maximise utilisation of the service and support whole-system management of winter pressures.
The commissioner is seeking to achieve, through this procurement, a service that supports neighbourhood-based models of care, delivers rapid access to same-day primary care assessment, improves patient flow across the urgent and emergency care system, and contributes to reducing avoidable demand on General Practice, Urgent Treatment Centres and Emergency Departments during periods of peak winter pressure. The service will be expected to work as an integrated component of Bromley's wider wint
