Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust wishes to develop a partnership with a provider of pharmaceutical services to provide medicines supply, stock management and dispensing for patients across the county including at key sites in Cumbria. Initially the service will focus on North Cumbria (Carlisle, Penrith, Whitehaven and Workington) with medicines supply to a number of other inpatient and clinic sites across the area also included. It is possible that an extension of the service to include Furness and South Lakes may also occur during the contract period.

The dispensing service will initially be required to be provided in daytime only, with out of hours / on-call provision available.

However, it is expected that any chosen provider will agree to alter their service provision in order to meet the changing needs of the Trust during the contract, including the potential for the contract to be extended to cover the whole County of Cumbria.