NHS Leeds West CCG, NHS Leeds North CCG and NHS Leeds South & East CCG AQP Minor Surgery Services.

The National strategy of providing care closer to home has led the commissioners to transfer services where appropriate out of secondary to primary care settings.

In the case of minor surgery, the service is commissioned in such a way as to achieve three key goals :-

• Ensuring equality of access so that Leeds patients who are registered with general practices who do not participate in the minor surgery DES, still have access to those services through referral to a community minor surgery provider of their choice

• Ensuring that lower complexity minor surgery cases can be managed through referral to a community minor surgery provider of their choice, rather than to a hospital service

• Enable other community services to access treatments that would otherwise be delivered by a hospital provider

Commissioners expect services to be delivered in line with the latest evidence base and providers will be required to ensure services meet all national regulatory requirements.

The services will:

 Ensure equitable, timely, high quality and appropriate access

 Ensure patients are seen and treated in a safe environment, appropriate to their care needs

 Provide a streamlined patient referral process

Providers should ensure that all their services are published on Choose and Book and that the directories of service fully reflect the service criteria within the specification. These include:

• Referral

• Clinical assessment and triage

• Patient Attendance

• Post Procedure

The successful providers(s) will be offered an AQP standard NHS contract. It should be noted that `under the Any Qualified Provider model, there will be no guarantees of volume or payment in the contracts awarded. Service specifications and the electronic application form can be found online at www.nhssourcing.co.uk and applications will be received until 20/11/2015. The accreditation will last for three years, with contracts being issued and reviewed annually.

The service is only for Patients of NHS Leeds West CCG, NHS Leeds North CCG and NHS Leeds South & East CCG.