Lord Bassam of Brighton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Bassam of Brighton on 2016-04-25.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government which other companies bid to become the main service provider of patient transport in Sussex, and why the decision was made to award the contract to Coperforma over other competitors.

Lord Prior of Brampton

We are advised by NHS England that four organisations including Coperforma completed the Pre-Qualifying Questionnaire (PQQ) in order to submit their bid for the contract and of these the South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, Arriva Transport Solutions Ltd and Coperforma Ltd were assessed as passing the PQQ. An Invitation to Tender was issued to all three organisations on 3 August 2015.

NHS England advises that Coperforma’s bid was evaluated in line with criteria published at the start of the process by a group of subject matter experts, clinicians and patient representatives and the bid was assessed as demonstrating a comprehensive response. The award of the contract to Coperforma was approved by all seven Sussex Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs).

We understand that the lead commissioner, High Weald Lewes Havens CCG, awarded Coperforma the non-emergency Patient Transport Service (PTS) contract for Sussex, which commenced on 1 April 2016. The CCG acknowledges that early performance of the new non-emergency Sussex PTS has not been acceptable.

For this reason High Weald Lewes Havens CCG, on behalf of all seven Sussex CCGs, has begun an inquiry with an aim for a report to be available for review by June 2016 with interim progress reports.