Royal National Orthopaedic NHS Trust

Patient Transport Service (PTS) Contract Approval

Current situation

  1. PTS is currently provided by agreed contract to RNOH by London Ambulance Service. They are contracted for a three year period which concludes on 31st March 2009. The contract covers only about 50% of the journeys undertaken by our patients.
  2. The out of contract journeys are undertaken predominately by a taxi company and a private ambulance firm. This is an expensive way to provide PTS and has led to the allocated budget being overspent for at least the last three years.

London Procurement Programme Initiative (LPP)

London Trusts currently use 26 suppliers and numerous taxi companies. The LPP is working towards providing a more cost-effective, streamlined service which will be fairer to patients, ensuring that non-emergency transport will be available to those who most need it. London spends £55 million a year on non-emergency patient transport services bought from external suppliers.

Savings will be generated from contracting with fewer suppliers and creating common specifications for each type of Trust. There will also be better and more cost-effective out-of-hours services.

The first phase of this project, initiated in Wave 1, involves 15 London Trusts. The new contracts are expected to start in April 2009. The RNOH is one of the Wave 1 Trusts to benefit from the introduction of a generic contract with suppliers.

Tender Process

  1. The LPP invited all London Trusts to meet with them to discuss their PTS arrangement. Trusts that were due to end existing contracts at the end of March 09 were prioritised. The terms of the contract for PTS were steered by staff from LPP.
  2. Wave 1 Trusts had to submit their requirements to LPP who in turn liaised with the eligible suppliers. Based on our predicted journeys requirement (uplifted to include the total number of journeys actually undertaken per annum) quotes were given for the contracts.
  3. RNOH initially received six tenders for the contract. Following a round of general presentations to stakeholders the number of tenders reduced to three (reasons for this include lack of company infrastructure to support the contract, unrealistic costing and suppliers being removed from the process). The three companies came to the hospital to present their tenders, the panel consisted of Siobhan Lalor-McTague, GM with responsibility for PTS, Helen Wilshire, Management Accountant, Phil Thomas, LPP representative and Rose Osae-Quartey, RNOH Purchasing Department.

Evaluation and Scoring of Tenders

Following the presentations a scoring matrix was used for each potential provider. The matrix was formulated by the LPP. Please see appendix 1 for the scoring results.

The scoring gave a clear ‘best option’ and concurred with thoughts of the panel at the presentations. The preferred option is to appoint Medical Services with the PTS contract, for an initial period of three years.

Medical Services is one of the fastest growing PTS providers in the UK, they have a fleet of over 1800 vehicles, and they have 25 sites around the UK, office staff of over 550. They have good clinical governance framework in place, modern equipment, experience of TUPE, and offer an individualised implementation programme.

Appointment of Contract

The contract will be appointed following Board agreement. The cost of the contract is £999,665 per annum based on 18,500 journeys. When delivered in budget as is expected to remove the over spend from this budget completely, (approximately running 30% overspend for last 3 years).

There is scope to appoint other transport related work e.g. courier service and the shuttle bus to Medical Services also. This will rationalise transportation contracts and achieve maximum efficiency. These discussions will be started following appointment of the PTS contract.

Conclusion

The PTS will be contracted to reflect the journeys required, based on data from a six month period in 2008 and remove the out of contract journeys that cost so much currently. Medical Services have a good reputation with their current contractors (Telephone conversations undertaken with Bedford NHS Trust) and staff with good customer service skills.

Notice has been given to all current providers to alert them of the tendering process. LPP will assist with debriefing the rejected parties.

Siobhan Lalor-McTague

Appendix 1

CRITERIA / MAXPOINTS / LAS / MEDICAL SERVICES / SAVOY
COST / 35.0 / 25.20 / 35.00 / 25.24
EXPERIENCE / 20.0 / 20 / 20 / 16
GENERAL CAPACITY / COMMS / 5.0 / 3 / 4 / 3
OPS / 5.0 / 5 / 5 / 3
MIBILISATION / 5.0 / 5 / 5 / 5
QA / 5.0 / 5 / 5 / 3
ORG& TECHNICAL CAPACITY / CONTRACT MGT / 5.0 / 3 / 5 / 4
FLEXIBILITY / 5.0 / 4 / 5 / 2
BUS CONTINUITY / 5.0 / 3 / 4 / 4
BOOKING & SCHEDULING / 5.0 / 3 / 5 / 4
VEHICLES / 5.0 / 4 / 4 / 4
100.0 / 80.20 / 97.00 / 73.24
Ranking / 2 / 1 / 3

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