Online PrEP PIN

This is an update to the PIN previously issued in July 2024 and following the market engagement session held on the 5th August 2024. Any further written submissions are requested by the 16th August and a new area of interest (point 15) in relation to an evaluation strategy are included in this updated PIN.

Hackney council, and a number of other local authority areas in London, are anticipating procuring an online PrEP Service to be in place during 2024/25 and to run for a period of up to 2years. After the initial phase we envisage online PrEP being part of the online pan London service that is likely to be commissioned by the London Sexual Health Programme.

We are keen to hear from providers who might want to be part of this pre procurement process. Commissioners do not have a defined blueprint about how the service or services should be configured and delivered – we are keen to hear from the market.

Please note that this Prior Information Notice (PIN) is not a call for competition at this stage.
However, we would like to hear your ideas, particularly about how you might be involved in helping us to deliver our mandatory Public Health responsibilities, in flexible, responsive, cost-effective ways.

Our requirements are likely to include (but may not be limited to):-

1) Providing an online service which determines a local resident is a) PrEP ready and PrEP eligible for initiation and/or/or b) ready and eligible for continuation of PrEP which has been initiated elsewhere. Including but not limited to STI testing, HIV test, kidney function test(s) and meets the prevailing clinical guidance for the provision of PrEP

2) Having established PrEP ready and eligible to prescribe PrEP in accordance with prevailing guidelines and for the cost of PrEP prescribing to be met by NHS England

3) For PrEP to be dispensed via postal service or for collection at a suitable collection
point e.g. clinical service, community pharmacy

4) For repeat testing and PrEP continuation to be well integrated into the new online
service offer

5) To ensure wide spread awareness of the online service amongst City and Hackney communities (and in other areas of London where this service is commissioned) to enable residents who are accessing PrEP at out area clinics to have a choice as to where to choose to receive PrEP, STI testing HIV testing e.g. online, within a local clinic or continue at an out of area location

6) For services to widen uptake and access to PrEP amongst groups currently PrEP eligible but with lower uptake e.g. heterosexual residents, global majority communities, gbmsm from socially disadvantaged backgrounds

7) To ensure appropriate geofencing is in place to restrict services to those people who
are usually resident within the areas commissioning this service e.g. excluding workplace addresses, parcel collection points

8) High quality, cost-effective services which can be rapidly scaled up depending upon
demand

9) The service is likely to operate on an item of service/ tariff within a defined maximum budget and this may require access be educed, throttled or capped in order to ensure budgets set for provision are not exceeded

10) Clinically safe and robust provision

11) Non-judgmental and confidential services

12) Services that identify and pro-actively address health inequalities

13) Services that use data and insights to continuously adapt and improve

14) Services that have built strong partnerships for referral of complex or ineligible patients to local clinical services

15) Services that have developed an evaluation strategy, ideally with academic partner(s), to demonstrate the effectiveness of the service that will provide information for subsequent publication and dissemination

Other Information

Please respond by providing an outline of how you would want to play a part in helping us
deliver our online PrEP service as described above by 12 noon on 16 th August 2024. Do not
attach any sales leaflets or internet links as part of your response these will not be reviewed. We are likely to wish to hold further face to face/MS Teams individual conversations in August or September with potential providers to help further shape our understanding of potential options for future procurement.