Kensington and Chelsea: Joined-up commissioning

West London Consortium contract

Since 1 April 2010 loaned community equipment in Kensington and Chelsea has been provided by Medequip Assistive Technology Limited following the re-tendering of the contract by the West London Consortium.

Using the Department of Health’s generic specification for products, the consortium has agreed a standard stock list of loan products. It has also developed a range of researched products for items being used regularly, by a few prescribers or by a few partners, where the volume is not sufficient to warrant inclusion on the standard stock list. Medequip has researched the market obtaining competitive prices for these items with an agreed delivery time. Bespoke products are also available.

Service users and prescribers benefit

Prescribers from health and social care have been involved in planning the new service. This has involved contributing to the service specification, participating in the planning and testing of the bespoke IT ordering system delivering the loan and retail service. In addition, product demonstrations were held leading to the selection/agreement of the products available for loan.

Service users took part in the assessment of potential service providers during the tendering process. This allowed them to share their experiences of the previous service and contribute to the design of the new service. Prescribers have benefited from the bespoke ordering system as they can see the costs of products, delivery/collection, select time frames for the activity and have a wider range of authorisers allowing orders to be processed in a timely manner.