North of England Commissioning Support (NECS) is managing this procurement process for and on behalf of NHS England Lancashire and Greater Manchester (the Contracting Authority).
The Contracting Authority proposes to commission Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA) Screening Services within Greater Manchester and East Cheshire (GM & EC) and is inviting expressions of interest in this tender opportunity.
A process that mirrors that of the Open Procurement route will be followed for this procurement to test the capacity, capability, and technical competence of tenderers in accordance with The Public Contracts Regulations 2006 (as amended). Regulation 120 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 provides for a temporary exemption and saving for certain NHS procurements. Regulation 120 provides that nothing in the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 affects any contract award procedure that relates to the procurement of health care services for the purposes of the NHS within the meaning and scope of the National Health Service (Procurement, Patient Choice and Competition) (No. 2) Regulations 2013(b), that is commenced before 18.4.2016 and any subsequent contract awarded as a result of such a procedure. The current Part B regime of the Public Contracts Regulations 2006 (as amended) and NHS (Procurement, Patient Choice and Competition) (No. 2) Regulations 2013(b) will continue to apply to the commissioning of these services until 18.4.2016.
The aim of AAA screening services is to reduce deaths from AAA through early detection, monitoring, and treatment to all men aged 65 registered with a GP or resident within GM & EC.
The service will also work with people who are housebound, people in minority groups, people with protected characteristics (in accordance with the Equality Act 2010) and people in places of detention to provide them opportunity to take up the service within the defined catchment area.
The National AAA Screening Programme aims to reduce AAA related deaths by providing a systematic population based screening programme for the male population during their 65th year, and on request for men over the age of 65 years, ensuring early detection, appropriate monitoring, and timely intervention/treatment. Research has demonstrated that offering men ultrasound screening in their 65th year should reduce the rate of premature death from ruptured AAA by up to 50 %.
The target population to be screened is all men eligible for NHS care registered with a general practitioner or resident within GM & EC.
Selection will be based on year of birth.
Men should be offered screening during the year — 1 April to 31 March — in which they turn 65 years.
Men over the age of 65 can self-refer to the screening programme and have their information added manually to the screening management system.
The population will be identified through the National Screening Management System and must include:
— subjects who are housebound;
— subjects in minority groups;
— subjects with protected characteristics (in accordance with the Equality Act 2010) and
— people in places of detention.
It is anticipated that the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 as amended by the Collective Redundancies and Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) (Amendment) Regulations 2014 (TUPE) may apply for this contract.
Tenderers are advised to form their own view on whether TUPE applies, obtaining their own legal advice and carrying out due diligence, it is the Tenderers responsibility to verify TUPE information with the incumbent service provider.
‘Under the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 the Contracting Authority must consider:
(a) how what is proposed to be procured might improve the economic, social and environmental well-being of the area where it exercises its functions, and
(b) how, in conducting the process of procurement, it might act with a view to securing that improvement.
Accordingly, the subject matter of the contract has been scoped to take into account the priorities of the Contracting Authority relating to economic, social, and environmental well-being. These priorities are described in the Invitation to Tender (ITT) and are reflected in environmental and social characteristics in the evaluation criteria for the award of the contract’.
NECS is utilising an electronic tendering system (In-Tend) to manage this procurement and communicate with tenderers. Please see Section VI (VI.3 Additional Information) on how to access In-Tend. Please note the deadline for submission of all tender returns is 12:00 on 19.11.2015 and tender documentation will be available on the In-Tend system from 21.10.2015. Please note this is to allow sufficient time for this OJEU Notice to be published before the project is published onto In-Tend.