Deadline looms for ASCC in the South

The deadline for final bids in a £100m procurement for community and child health systems in the South of England falls on Monday.

But despite the size of the long awaited, stop-start procurement under the Additional Supply Capability and Capacity framework, eHealth Insider understands that a number of suppliers will not respond.

One source said firms had been put off by procurement requirements, which were said to be “overly onerous” and to have “untenable terms and conditions."

The ASCC community and child health procurement is intended to provide the blueprint for a subsequent ASCC procurements covering acute and ambulance systems in the South.

However, a senior industry figure told EHI that the procurement for 13 NHS trusts had become “an academic exercise, that I don’t think will ever reach contract award." 

Criticisms of the procurement, which was suddenly re-launched in November after being put on hold in the Spring, focus on it being too elaborate.

The terms and conditions are said to skew it heavily in favour of existing lead suppliers to the National Programme for IT in the NHS.

The cost for each trust involved is expected to be in line with the £9m per trust BT is being paid to deploy RiO at 25 community and mental health trusts in the South.

As originally conceived, the procurement was meant to create opportunities for both existing NPfIT lead suppliers and small and medium sized enterprises, by awarding contracts in a series of lots. The procurement splits into software, deployment and hosting.

The approach is said to have resulted in a fearsomely complex procurement that only the largest suppliers can afford to respond to, deterring SME participation.

“They came out with a process and a timescale that legislates against any other suppliers and SMEs and almost guarantees that only BT or CSC [the existing NPfIT local service providers] are likely to win,” a disgruntled source told EHI.

In addition, the contractual terms and conditions being demanded are said to be onerous.

Suppliers must agree to a pay per use basis, in which they commit to the upfront costs of implementation and only get paid on subsequent use, without having a direct customer relationship.

The industry source said that this created “untenable terms and conditions”, which some suppliers would be unable to commit to. He added that separating vendors from NHS customers risked re-creating one of the main flaws of the national programme. 

He predicted that the three products most likely to be in the frame at the end of the process will be RiO from BT, TPP from CSC, and Paris from Logica.

Suppliers were told to submit final bids, responding to individual 700 requirements, by 4 January. After protests about being expected to work through Christmas, the deadline was extended to 10 January.

The DH confirmed the deadline. A spokesperson added: “This procurement will support trusts in the South of England to better provide front-line services that put patients’ needs at the heart of community services.

"Owned and led by the local NHS, trusts will be able to contract the system that best meets their need from a range of proven information solutions.”

The DH plans to shortlist bids by February and proceed to contract award by the third week in March. The schedule, tied to the end of the NHS financial year, offers little room for slippage.

Over the same period, the DH plans to restart the acute ASCC procurement, understood to currently be at business case stage with the Treasury. Assuming this is approved it would not reach contract award until 2011-12.