Plymouth Council to support up to 18,000 people per year with new CES provider

Plymouth Council’s community equipment service (CES) has been secured by provider NRS Healthcare, where it will support between 16,000 to 18,000 people each year with assistive technologies to enable them to live as independently as possible.

The contract will run from 2023 to 2026, the service is jointly funded between Plymouth City Council and NHS Devon ICB (formerly CCG), which signed off the decision making process on 17 August 2022.

NRS’s bid reflected the council’s current health and care plan, to keep people in Plymouth safe and well, focus on prevention and early intervention, and reduce health inequalities.

The tender outcome involved a change from the incumbent, Millbrook Healthcare, who held the previous contract from April 2015 to February 2023, to a new provider.

Nigel Thacker, Development Director at NRS, said: “We are proud to have been chosen by new customers to provide their services.

“The new contracts are designed to meet the challenges and opportunities our customers, both council and NHS partners are facing now and that will emerge over the next decade.

“Contracts are also increasingly integrating wider services to reduce commissioner costs, make ordering simpler for prescribers, and deliver a more joined up provision for service users.”

NRS Healthcare was delighted to end last year having won several new community equipment contracts through the course of 2022, both with new and existing customers.

Contracts have been won through separate successful rebids with Buckinghamshire Council, Lincolnshire County Council, Brighton & Hove Council and Torbay Council.

Some of the new contracts extend the range of services NRS provides to customers, for example, NRS will also be taking over the provision of wheelchair services across Lincolnshire from April 2024.

Technology Enabled Care (TEC) has been included in NRS’ contract with Buckinghamshire Council for some time, a service developed with Buckinghamshire during the previous contract period and extended in scope in the new contract.

A number of contracts add minor adaptations, lift and hoist services, an increasingly common integration with Community Equipment Services.

Nigel added: “We are delighted to be able to continue our relationships with so many of our existing customers, some of whom we have been delivering Community Equipment and other services in partnership with for 15 years or more.”

In the past, NRS Healthcare depots have opened their doors to partner health and social care professionals to get to know them better and give them an opportunity to look around and find out more about the outsourced provider’s assistive technology services.