Provision of installation, servicing and maintenance of Vernacare macerator units at Nottingham City Hospital

Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (The Authority) is publishing this planned procurement notice is to give as much advance information to the market as possible with regards to the provision of installation, servicing and maintenance of its Vernacare macerator units at Nottingham City Hospital (The Services). The Services will include, but are not limited to, a minimum of 1 maintenance visit per annum, 24/7 call out support and guaranteed next day call out for reactive maintenance.

Installation shall be required on an ad-hoc basis e.g. lifecycle replacements. The responses to the Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) exercise carried out in November/December 2025 revealed that materials (e.g. parts, spares etc) for the Authority's macerators are only available from Vernacare.

The Authority considered options such as purchasing materials and services separately, however, this would require the Authority to purchase materials (e.g. parts, spares) upfront to enable a supplier to provide the Services. Due to constraints (e.g. Budget and storage availability), the Authority does not have the appetite to purchase and store the volume of materials required to enable a supplier to effectively provide the Services.

Therefore, the Authority wishes to contract for provision of Services, including materials, under a single agreement. Based on the above, the Authority is considering awarding a contract to Vernacare in accordance with part 41 of the Procurement Act 2023 (Direct award in Special Cases) based on the grounds due to an absence of competition for technical reasons. only a particular supplier can supply the services required (Namely provision of Services including materials) and there are no reasonable alternatives to those services, i.e.: The Authority would be required to: - Purchase and store materials upfront, or - Replace all existing Vernacare macerator units with an alternative. It is envisaged this notice will inform any interested Suppliers of the planned procurement exercise and the Authority's chosen procurement route.