COVID-19 Outreach Testing Service

Wakefield Council has directly awarded a contract to Conexus Healthcare Ltd (which commenced on the 10th July 2020) to deliver a COVID-19 Outreach Testing Service in Wakefield in accordance with Regulation 32 of the Public Contracts Regulations (PCRs) 2015 (Use of the Negotiated Procedure without Prior Publication. Earlier this year the European Commission accepted that COVID-19 was an unforeseeable global pandemic.

Satellite testing services were set up via multi-agency provision of which the Council had no control. A decision was made to close the Satellite Testing Service at Fieldhead Hospital, Wakefield on 5th July 2020 despite a continuing need for a COVID-19 testing service in Wakefield for those unable to use the national testing service commissioned by the DHSC.

This left the Council in urgent need to procure a replacement service as to not to have this testing in place would create a serious and imminent threat to public health. Given the urgency, tt was impossible to comply with the usual timescales in the PCRs - even with reduced time limits (i.e. 15 days for receipt of tenders when using the open procedure), as it would not have been possible to work towards the required service commencement date of 10th July 2020.. Also there were no Framework Agreements or Dynamic Purchasing Systems available to use.