County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust are looking to contract for the provision of a taxi service to cover the County Durham and Darlington area. The Trust is the largest provider of integrated health services in the North East with over 1 000 000 patient contacts per year. Our 8 000 staff serve around 650 000 people cross County Durham, Darlington, North Yorkshire, the Tees Valley and South Tyneside. The Trust provides acute hospital services at Darlington Memorial Hospital, University Hospital of North Durham and Bishop Auckland Hospital as well as planned care and community services from several community hospitals and similar premises.

The Trust is seeking a supplier(s) to provide taxi services to the Trust to facilitate the movement of patients, staff and small packages / parcels and similar items.

The contract is to be for 12 months with the option to extend an additional 2 x 12 month periods and divided into Lots as follows:

— Lot 1 — North County Durham including Shotley Bridge, Chester le Street, Durham and surrounding areas to approximately Sedgefield;

— Lot 2 — South County Durham including Darlington, Bishop Auckland, Barnard Castle and surrounding areas to approximately Sedgefield.

Suppliers can bid for both lots.