Adult Community Specialist Palliative Care Services

NHS North West London Integrated Care Board (the “ICB) is intending to commission Adult Community Specialist Palliative Care Services (CSPC), for the provision of Community Specialist Palliative and End Life Care Services for adults (18+) living with progressive life limiting/ terminal conditions with or without co-morbidities for a proposed contract term of between 12 to 36 months (the “Proposed Contract”).

Adult CSPC services are part of a larger group of services that support people at the end-of-life. They operate to support people away from hospital and are geared toward people who have complex and specialist needs that cannot be met by general services alone, such as general practice and community nursing. Instead, people with complex needs are cared for by a network of services which are staffed by clinician’s and teams who have specialist skills and training in palliative care.

These services are currently being delivered by Harlington Hospice, St John’s Hospice, St Luke’s Hospice, Royal Trinity Hospice, Marie Curie London Nursing Services, Meadow House Hospice (provided by London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust ), Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust and Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust.

The ICB is of the view that the services described are capable of being provided only by the providers mentioned in this notice, and are not aware of other providers who can deliver the required level or care and services at the current tariffs and who have estates in the areas where services need to be delivered.

The described charitable hospice services are partially funded by the service providers including charitable contributions. The funding envelope available is based on continuation of charitable funding to support delivery of specialist palliative care services, in line with the stated aims of the charitable hospice sector.

For a provider to be able to apply, they need to be able to demonstrate that they have the appropriate estates (i.e. hospice inpatient unit facilities), are specialist palliative care providers with the necessary specialist workforce in line with the description of the procurement. The model of care outlines the common provision of CPSC service in all eight boroughs in North West London:

1. Care at home (adult community specialist palliative care nursing teams, hospice at home and 24/7 specialist telephone advice)
2. Community specialist inpatient beds (hospice inpatient beds, enhanced end-of-life care (EoLC) beds)
3. Hospice outpatients (including lymphoedema, psychological and bereavement services), hospice day care and wellbeing services.