NHS England and NHS Improvement South East – Integrated Healthcare Services to Kent and Medway Prisons

NHS England and NHS Improvement South East (the Commissioner) seeks to commission prime providers for the provision of Integrated Healthcare Services to Kent and Medway Prisons. The procurement is split into 2 lots:

Lot 1
•HMP Elmley; local Category B/C men's prison
•HMP Standford Hill; Category D men's prison
•HMP Swaleside; Category B men's prison

Lot 2
•HMP/YOI Rochester; male young offenders institution
•HMP Maidstone; dedicated Foreign National, Category C men's prison
•HMP/YOI East Sutton Park; women's open prison and young offenders institution

NHSEI will hold a contract with the prime provider for each lot, who in turn can directly provide care and/or subcontract care to other specialist providers.

The services will be commissioned as part of the overall Offender Health pathway within the prisons and as such this model will ensure an integrated, recovery orientated service delivery system both within the prisons and onwards into the community. The service will focus on delivering person-centred care within seamless, integrated structured clinical and psychosocial interventions/services in prison and facilitating arrangements through the gate into the community to ensure effective continuity of care. Close joint working with other healthcare services, as well as other departments within the prison is imperative to the success of the delivery of this service.

The healthcare services in the contract include (please see the service specification for further information and full list of services required):
•General Practitioners Provision
•Primary care nursing
•Dental services – to commence 1st April 2022 where stated
•Inpatient Unit facility where one exists
•Substance misuse services
•Optometry
•Podiatry
•Audiology
•Primary and Secondary Mental Health and Learning Disability Services
•Health Promotion and Prevention
•Appropriate administrative and data management support (including data intelligence and reporting resource; data and intelligence analysis)
•Musculoskeletal therapies
•Smoking cessation
•Blood Borne Viruses testing, to include funding, access and delivery (including provision of testing facilities where necessary)
•Consultant-led pain management clinics
•Therapies
•Sexual health screening (Tiers 1, 2 & 3)
•IM&T provision
•Escorts and bed watches (via risk share agreements)
•Requirement to communicate and work with incumbent pharmacy provider

The provider will also be responsible for ensuring effective and meaningful pathways of care are established with secondary care / diagnostics and other services outside of the specification, including hospital-based services, to meet patients' health needs.

The contracts are due to commence on 1st December 2021, and the contract duration will be 7 years.

The maximum contract values for the services are:
Lot 1 = annual contract value £15,743,008; total contract lifecycle value £110,017,977
Lot 2 = annual contract value £5,699,607; total contract lifecycle value £39,824,897.