Primary Care Services Procurement

The UK Department of Health's Equitable Access Procurement Programme was designed to enhance the options for patients by extending the provision of services across weekends and evenings and to align health services to the way patients can best access them. It also was a mechanism through which new providers of primary care could enter the market and introduce new contract monitoring arrangements for Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) to ensure high levels of care and accountability. Mace has worked with various healthcare providers that were seeking to provide additional services to local populations, strengthening the role of primary care and also minimising unnecessary use of accident and emergency services, which represent a huge burden on PCT budgets.

Mace's role was to project manage the procurement of these additional services through a competitive tendering process. The team brought the rigour of commercial consultancy to the public sector,and managed processes that were not familiar to all PCT staff. Mace's role supported managers in the Equitable Access Procurement Programme, offering strategic advice on how to tender, internal staff training on managing contracts, management of the bidding process, and interviews through to contract negotiations with the winning bidders. The results were robust and efficient expansion of health services for the community at large.