The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust is seeking a solution for the provision of flow cytometry instrumentation and reagents for its diagnostic Immunophenotyping laboratory.

Immunophenotyping by flow cytometry is performed in the centre for molecular pathology on the Sutton site of the Royal Marsden hospital. The laboratory plays a pivotal role in the provision of the Royal Marsden Specialist Integrated Haematological Malignancies Diagnostic Service (SIHMDS) which serves a population of >4 000 000.

The laboratory requires the capacity to perform flow cytometry cell analysis for leukaemia and lymphoma and multiple myeloma diagnosis, minimal residual disease (in excess of 6 500 samples per annum) and CD34 enumeration (>900 samples per annum) using purpose built bench-top IVD marked flow cytometry instrumentation.

The Trust is asking service providers to deliver a contract which will:

— install and maintain a comprehensive solution for the Immunophenotyping service, including flow cytometers, pre-analytical instrumentation, software and any other services/equipment required to deliver the service described,

— provide reagents and consumables including Internal Quality Control (IQC), running all IQC on all systems at required frequency to deliver the service described,

— provide the necessary IT connectivity to integrate the equipment into the laboratory information management system via instrument manager middleware and manage the data produced by the analysers,

— provide other services such as practical support for initial validation and verification and implementation, training, contract management support, reagents and other consumables supply, an optional inventory management solution, and value-added items such as marketing and service improvement,

— allow for new instrumentation, processes, reagents and software which may come online during the contract.