NMCPS Pathology Managed Services

With two separate competitive procurement exercises, UHNM has attempted to procure the future delivery of the Service. However, these processes have had to be abandoned, so UHNM is making two contract awards, to existing suppliers, to September 2028 to allow itself time to conduct a re-procurement of the Service and sufficient time for handover and implementation of the future delivery of the Service from September 2028.

The Service comprises the essential delivery of critical services across four separate sites in the North Midlands. UHNM has attempted to procure a supplier to deliver the future of the Service but as a result of legal challenges from bidders during each of these processes, has not been able to make an award for future delivery of the Service.

UHNM is currently undertaking preparation for a new procurement process for the Service, to be conducted under the Procurement Act 2023. UHNM expects to publish a preliminary market engagement notice on the central digital platform in May 2025 in respect of this new process and interested organisations should look out for this notice.

However, well-planned, a change of critical analytical platforms across four sites will result in a reduction in productivity during any transition period, and the Service would be affected, particularly in respect of A&E turnaround times. The patients of Staffordshire, Cheshire and Shropshire will also be put at a significant disadvantage and increased clinical risk if this process were not given a sufficient lead-in time.

Due to these complexities, therefore, UHNM expects implementation and clinical change management, plus conducting a robust procurement exercise, requires a target start date of the new Service delivery from September 2028. UHNM has learned from the two abandoned procurements and wishes to allow for sufficient time to conduct a successful procurement process for the future Service involving the following: 1) conducting market engagement; 2) planning and preparing its procurement documents and process; 3) delivering its procurement process successfully; 4) evaluating and moderating robustly; 5) finalising contractual arrangements with the successful supplier; and 6) allowing for handover to the new supplier and implementation of the new Service.

To enable UHNM to have this time to conduct a successful procurement and implementation of the new Service, it is making the following modifications to contracts it already has in place for the current delivery of the Service: 1) Extending a contract with Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics Limited, for delivery of the Service at the Royal Stoke and County sites, from its current expiry date of September 2026 to September 2028; and 2) Extending a contract with Beckman Coulter United Kingdom Limited for delivery of the Service at the Leighton and Macclesfield sites, from its current expiry date of September 2025 to September 2028. The extensions will also include some vital equipment replacement to ensure continuity of current service and mitigation of delivery risks.

Any unavoidable replacement of ageing/failing equipment will be kept to a minimum specification so that the current level of service can be maintained without adversely impacting patient care. UHNM believes that this is the minimum time required to ensure the procurement is successfully completed and implementation is handled successfully, following a thorough planning stage and increased governance throughout the procurement lifecycle.

If the contracts are not extended now, they will require extension at a time UHNM will also be conducting the new procurement exercise. This would be disruptive, so UHNM considers it more efficient to extend the contracts now.

The alignment of the expiry date of these contracts will also ensure that the successful supplier in the new procurement to be conducted by UHNM is able to deliver the future of the Service from the same date, rather than having differing commencement dates at different sites. UHNM believes this will make handover and implementation easier for the future supplier.

Therefore, UHNM considers that the circumstances at Regulation 32(2)(b) and (c) Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCR) are met. In addition, UHNM does not consider that there are viable alternatives considering that the Service comprises the delivery of essential clinical services and resources (both human and financial) are extremely stretched in UHNM and the NHS generally. While not an ideal situation, UHNM has sought to procure the future contract unsuccessfully and considers the time period to September 2028 will allow it to successfully procure a supplier to deliver the future iteration of the Service.