10.07.15
All NHS 111 tenders suspended until September
NHS England has told commissioners to suspend all GP out-of-hours (OOH) and NHS 111 procurements, regardless of the stage they are in, until September.
In a letter from Dame Barbara Hakin, commissioning operations director at NHS England, CCGs were told to halt the tenders to give the national body time to create commissioning standards and a clinical model for a “functionally integrated, urgent care access, treatment and clinical advice service”.
The new services will essentially join up 24/7 urgent care, NHS 111 and OOH provision. Currently, these services are often procured separately and across areas of various different sizes.
It has also been suggested that CCGs could partner up to contract these services. In the letter, seen by HSJ, Hakin wrote: “The lead or coordinating commissioner arrangement should be considered, in which commissioners serving a wider area are brought together to commission an integrated service.”
The letter was issued last Friday, two days after The Telegraph newspaper disclosed concerns about the way 111 helplines are being run.
It was revealed that a reporter, who spent four weeks training to work in the South Central Ambulance Service call centre, found that the computer system did not dispatch an ambulance even when symptoms could be those of a heart attack.
South Central Ambulance Service has now launched an inquiry. A spokesperson said: “We take the issues and points raised by the undercover reporter very seriously and as a result of this we have launched an internal investigation to review the allegations.”
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