Scottish mental health charity SAMH will continue to deliver the Aberdeen City Link Practitioner Service
until 2027.
The charity, which has been running the service for Aberdeen City Health & Social Care Partnership since
2017, has been awarded the new four-year contract starting on 1 April 2023.
The Link Practitioner Service provides support to patients at GP surgeries when social and economic issues are having a negative impact on their health or wellbeing. Their role is vital to help patients navigate wider public and third sector support to ensure they get the right help, in the right place, at the right time.
ACHSCP carried out a collaborative commissioning process for the service in Aberdeen by bringing together a wide range of stakeholders, including patients, local communities, Link Service staff, primary care colleagues, prospective providers and public partners. The process was inspired by the recent findings of the Feeley Report resulting from the Independent Review of Adult Social Care and gave all key stakeholders the chance to co-design service outcomes and shape the tender specification.
The tender opportunity was published on Public Contracts Scotland between 1 September and 7 October
2022. Following a rigorous evaluation process, SAMH were awarded the contract to take the Link Practitioner service forward for the next four years ACHSCP Chief Officer Sandra MacLeod said: “The Partnership would like to thank all interested providers for their huge level of interest and engagement in this process.
“The link practitioner service has been a great success story so far, helping thousands of patients find extra
support and taking some of the pressure off our hard-pressed GPs. Now we have continuity for the next
four years to build on what has been achieved so far and guide even more patients to the assistance they
need.”
Billy Watson, Chief Executive of SAMH, said: “We are delighted to have been awarded a renewed contract
to manage the Aberdeen City Link Practitioner Service. We look forward to building on this impactful work
and continuing to work closely with Aberdeen City Health and Social Care Partnership to support our GP
colleagues.”
