NHS Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board (ICB) is responsible for commissioning dermatology services for the people of Kent and Medway.
Dermatology covers all conditions that affect the skin, hair and nails and there are several providers who are contracted to run these services.
We review contracts on a regular basis to make sure they are value for money and provide the best patient care, and as part of this a re-procurement exercise was recently conducted of dermatology services. The intention was to award contracts for:
1) North and west Kent services, including cancer services, and
2) East Kent services which are provided by a range of service providers in the community (not including cancer services)
At the conclusion of a thorough process, NHS Kent and Medway ICB took the decision not to award any new contracts at this stage.
The contract that was on offer to run services in north and west Kent was not awarded due to a response which could not assure continued quality of care.
In east Kent, the ICB did not complete the procurement process so it can consider how it might contract for and procure a fully integrated dermatology service, redesigned to best meet patients’ needs.
The ICB will now undertake a review of the service models across Kent and Medway to identify options for integrated dermatology services.
In the meantime, dermatology services in Kent and Medway will continue to be provided by current providers to ensure continuity of patient care.
We recently ran a survey to find out what patients need from a dermatology service.
This report summarises the findings of the survey – which formed part of this process.
Patient survey
Over a period of four weeks, patient engagement was carried out to find out people’s experience.
Every person currently being treated or who have been under the care of the dermatology service, a letter explaining the reasons for collecting their experience and a link to an online survey.
Every patient was given the opportunity to request a hard copy version of the survey and a telephone number to contact a member of the engagement team to go through the survey questions, if needed.
Feedback summary
More than six hundred people responded to the survey. The feedback received was similar across Kent and Medway’s four Health and Care Partnership areas.
- Satisfaction rate: high, with 90 per cent of people surveyed ‘very satisfied’ or ‘satisfied’ with the service they had received
- Information and feedback: more information to be shared with people to help them to manage the skin condition
- Time between initial appointment and follow-ups: reduce the time between appointments and better communication explaining the reason
- Service and clinics: staff overall are warm, friendly, helpful and empathetic, with a very small number of experiences countering this view
- Appointment locations: some people felt they were travelling a long way to receive treatment and wanted to access a service closer to home
- Digital support: many people were referred using a skincare app and felt their experience could be improved by step-by-step guidance on how to use the app
This feedback has been used to:
- support the current service providers and referrers to improve their services, patient pathways, experience and outcomes
- help develop the service scope, specification, pathways, key service performance indicators and quality standards (requirements of the providers to ensure they meet patients’ needs safely and effectively) as part of the re-procurement of these services.
All the findings from the survey can be found in our report.
At the conclusion of a thorough process, NHS Kent and Medway ICB took the decision not to award any new contracts at this stage.
The contract that was on offer to run services in north and west Kent was not awarded due to a response which could not assure continued quality of care.
In east Kent, the ICB did not complete the procurement process so it can consider how it might contract for and procure a fully integrated dermatology service, redesigned to best meet patients’ needs.
In the meantime, dermatology services in Kent and Medway will continue to be provided by current providers to ensure continuity of patient care.
What’s next?
The ICB will now undertake a review of the service models across Kent and Medway to identify options for integrated dermatology services. We will continue to involve patients in deciding who will provide dermatology services.
The next stage will include setting up a people’s forum, recruited from those who responded to the survey and this forum will become a part of the ongoing process and will be engaged with throughout.
There will also be people involved in the scoring of the bids, along with subject matter experts once we reach the tender process.
In the meantime, the treatment and support dermatology patients currently receive will continue as before.
If you have any questions, please email kmicb.engage@nhs.net.