CCG awards £1.6bn ‘integrated care partnership’ contract

Devon Clinical Commissioning Group and Plymouth City Council awarded University Hospitals Plymouth Trust the 10-year contract, after a lengthy procurement process which was delayed by the pandemic. The contract covers services across Plymouth and West Devon. 

The trust, which is rated “requires improvement” by the Care Quality Commission, will team up with Livewell Southwest Community Interest Company, which will act as a subcontractor to UHP. Livewell Southwest, a social enterprise, is the incumbent provider of most of the services tendered.

HSJ revealed in 2018 that the acute trust and Livewell had set up a joint board and hired an integration director in a bid to bring their services closer together.

UHP was the only bidder for the contract. The new ICP will put community services on a “stable footing for the next decade” as well as being a “crucial foundation on which to reset the provision of our acute focused care,” papers for the trust’s May board meeting said.

Local chiefs believe the partnership will bring several benefits, including reducing health inequalities, improving access and patient outcomes and “addressing our financial and service sustainability challenges”. UHP recorded deficits of £27m and £63m in the 2018-19 and 2019-20 financial years respectively and has a cumulative deficit of more than £100m.

Under the contract, UHP will take over community rehabilitation and stroke inpatient beds from Livewell Southwest, but the social enterprise will provide the rest of the services.

The ICP’s first priority will be to find a solution for the temporary relocation of 15 rehabilitation beds due to capital works being carried out at one of Livewell South West’s mental health facilities, the UHP board papers said.

In its first year, the ICP will also focus on setting up a “single point of access”, linking closer together with primary care, creating an integrated frailty pathway, and creating a “fit for purpose and inclusive mental health model for emergency care”.

Somerset Foundation Trust, which became the first NHS trust on the English mainland to provide community, mental health and acute services across its patch, will offer “support and advice” to help UHP meet its obligations as the “prime provider” for mental health services.

The contract, which can be extended for a further five years, starts next month after being delayed a year by the pandemic. It covers a population of around 360,000.