Hertfordshire and West Essex STP Transformation of Pathology Services

This procurement is being led by Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust on its own behalf and on behalf of the following contracting authorities: West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trusts, East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust, West Essex CCG, East and North Herts CCG, Herts Valleys CCG (the "Core Contracting Authorities"). The total activity per annum for the Core Contracting Authorities is approximately 15 million tests (subject to change after further analysis).

The range of pathology services required includes: Blood Sciences (including 24/7 provision on site), Immunology, Infectious Sciences (including On-call), Cellular Pathology, Specialist Hematology, Specialist Chemistry, Molecular, Specialist Services, Central Specimen Reception, Phlebotomy, Anti-Coagulation, Patient Service Reception, Clinics, A&E, and POCT. Refer to the Procurement Documents for further information.

The scope of services required is likely to change during the procurement. Additional information: (1) The contracting authorities are looking to procure and award contracts for the provision to each of their pathology services.

The contracting authorities anticipate each of them entering into a single contract/s with the selected supplier (and that the award may involve more than one contract between each contracting authority and the selected supplier). (2) Potential bidders should be aware that the procurement is not dependent on all of the contracting authorities eventually awarding contracts with the selected supplier (although only one supplier will be selected).

Each of the contracting authorities reserves the right not to award any contract(s). (3) The precise place or places of work will be determined through the tender process but the selected supplier will need to provide at least some elements of the services from the premises of the Core Contracting Authorities.

The contracting authorities currently anticipate that all of the procured services will need to be provided from within the UK. (4) The procurement is under the "light touch regime" pursuant to Regulations 74 to 76 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015.

As such the contracting authorities are free to set the procedures for the procurement, subject (inter alia) to those procedures being sufficient to ensure compliance with the principles of transparency and equal treatment. Accordingly, the contracting authorities intend to follow a procedure which broadly follows the process of a competitive dialogue, but will not be bound to follow all of the prescriptive elements of that procedure. References in this notice and subsequent procurement documents to the or a "competitive dialogue" shall be construed accordingly.