News
45 Million Contract Win for Local Health Partnership |
| Posted by Administrator (admin) on Jan 27 2012 |
26January 2012
A five-year contract worth £45 million to handle non-emergency medical calls in the North East has been awarded to a local partnership.
NHS County Durham and Darlington, on behalf of NHS North of Tyne, NHS South of Tyne and NHS Tees, announced today that it has awarded a five year contract to North East Ambulance Service Foundation Trust (NEAS) in collaboration with Northern Doctors Urgent Care Ltd (NDUC) for the roll-out and provision of the NHS 111 service across the North East.
Since August 2010 residents of County Durham and Darlington, with an illness or injury that is less urgent than 999, have been able to call the new NHS 111 number in order to access quickly the healthcare service that best meets their needs. Now following on from this successful pilot, the new NHS 111 service will be rolled out across the rest of the North East by April 2013.
The awarding of this contract is the result of a six month competitive procurement process which, led by NHS County Durham and Darlington and supported by the NHS North East Procurement Service, saw the NEAS and NDUC partnership successfully compete against four other bidder organisations to win the contract.
Yasmin Chaudhry, Chief Executive of NHS County Durham and Darlington, said “Implementation of NHS 111 is the key element underpinning our strategy to deliver reform of the urgent care system across the North East. The awarding of this contract marks a major step forward in our journey and underlines our commitment to ensuring patients can access quickly the healthcare service that best meets their needs.”
Simon Featherstone, Chief Executive of North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We are extremely pleased to have been awarded this contract. It’s a significant milestone in fulfilling our mission to ensure that patients in the North East receive the right care in the right place at the right time.
“This is a testament to the durability and resolve of a dedicated team to bring this to fruition in a way which has widespread clinical acceptance in the North East. As the first region in the country to implement NHS 111, we hope that our experiences, with enlightened partners at Connecting for Health, NHS County Durham and Darlington and Northern Doctors Urgent Care, will help benefit others as they seek to roll the service out across the UK.”
John Harrison, Chief Executive of Northern Doctors Urgent Care (NDUC), said: “We are thrilled that our partnership with NEAS has been successful in winning NHS 111 for the North East.
“As a GP-led out-of-hours provider in the North East, we have 16 years of experience in providing urgent care for 1.5 million patients across the region which will put us in a strong position to ensure we build a resilient NHS 111 service across the North East.”
County Durham and Darlington was one of only four areas across the country to initially pilot the NHS 111 service. Since then, County Durham and Darlington has seen a 14% reduction in the number of calls received by 999, an overall 3% reduction in the number of 999 incidents and a 9% reduction in Accident and Emergency attendances compared to other areas with a similar demographic in the North East.
Berenice Groves, Programme Director of the NHS 111 Service across the North East said: ‘People are often confused by the number and type of healthcare services available to them locally and NHS 111 is designed to simplify this decision making process. By encouraging people to talk to us before they set off we aim to ensure patients are re-assured and then directed to those services that are closest to them and which can best meet their healthcare needs. We hope that by making sure patients access the most appropriate service in the shortest possible time we will be able to deliver a positive patient experience, shorter waiting times and higher levels of patient satisfaction.’
Minister of State for Health, Simon Burns said: “I’m delighted in the success of this procurement process, and that the whole of the North East region is one step closer to being able to access NHS 111. I’m also grateful for all the work done by NHS staff in the North East to test NHS 111 over the last eighteen months which has seen improvements in patient care, and a really high level of patient satisfaction. This work has provided invaluable learning which will help the rest of the NHS roll out NHS 111 successfully by April 2013.”
County Durham and Darlington was one of only four areas across the country to initially pilot the NHS 111 service. Since then, County Durham and Darlington, has seen a 14% reduction in the number of calls received by 999, an overall 3% reduction in the number of 999 incidents and a 9% reduction in Accident and Emergency attendances compared to other areas with a similar demographic in the North East.
To date the NHS 111 service has answered over 200,000 calls. As a result 42% of callers were given a booked appointment at their local Urgent Care Centre or directed to their own GP, 11% of calls resulted in an immediate Ambulance response and 6% of callers were directed to their nearest Accident and Emergency Department. Feedback from patients also shows that there were no delays in the provision of care and that patient experience was improved through quicker access to the most appropriate local services.
