Is the patient transport market ready for 2021?

Before Covid, the Non-Emergency Patient Transport Services (NEPTS) sector was seeing an increasing number of tenders abandoned or shoved to the back burner for a future re-run at some undefined point. A decent chunk were not awarded because, to put it bluntly, everyone was too expensive.   So there was a backlog building already – now put Covid in the mix and there’s more contracts than ever which are running well past their term. I also get the sense that more widely, commissioners would rather keep their existing contracts bumping along as long possible as there is inevitably going to be a cost increase associated with a new contract. 

There’s going to be some consequences for 2021 (and further on) due to some of these combining factors. When the world opens up a bit, let’s say late spring, it appears likely that there will be a sizeable chunk of NEPTS tenders coming to market around the same time.  Commissioners have a preference to align contract starts to the financial year so an early summer tender release with an April 1st 2022 start would fit nicely.  Let’s say that assumption is correct – how joined up is the commissioning community to recognise the impact that may have?  

First, the supplier base is seriously diminished from where it was a few years ago and for those larger contracts, there’s really only a small handful of providers who are realistic candidates.  These players are all battle-hardened and more willing than ever to take a pass on tenders which don’t make it through the sniff test.   Secondly, any provider which chalks-up a win in 2021 is not going to take on another full mobilisation for the same timeframe, that just doesn’t work.  So the number of providers actively bidding for the bigger NEPTS contracts in the back end of the 2021 could look very small indeed.

The sector is already seeing examples of large tenders with only one or two returned bids and it’s hard to see the current set of circumstances helping the situation.  I would love to see commissioners start to join up and take proactive steps to recognise that, with contracts well over-due and a dwindling supplier base, this model of procurement needs some serious TLC.  Taking a ‘glass half full’ view, there is a stack of not very complicated steps that can be taken to make the market more attractive to new and existing suppliers and regenerate a proper marketplace but I do believe it will take co-ordination across the commissioning system for that to happen – no one commissioner is going to reset the model and hope others will follow.

Ed Clements is an independent consultant in the healthcare transport sector.  Please get in touch for more information on our services.

Ed.clements@starwoodconsulting.co.uk

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