North of England Commissioning Support (NECS) is managing this procurement process for and on behalf of NHS England (North) Yorkshire & the Humber (the Contracting Authority).
The basic principles of the Open Procurement route were 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 Contracting Authority has commissioned Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA) Screening Services in the South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw area
The aim of AAA is to:
Reduce deaths from AAA through early detection, monitoring, and treatment to all men aged 65 registered with a GP or resident in South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw (SY&B).
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 SY&B.
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 will include:
— Subjects who are housebound;
— Subjects in minority groups;
— Subjects with protected characteristics (in accordance with the Equality Act 2010);
— People in places of detention.
Potential tenderers were to note: that the Contracting Authority 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 have applied for this contract. Potential Tenderers were advised to form their own view on whether TUPE applies, obtaining their own legal advice and carrying out due diligence
The service is to commence on 1.4.2016 for a period of 3 years with the option to extend the contract by a further 1 x 24 month period at the discretion of the Contracting Authority and subject to satisfactory contractual and financial performance.
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 had been scoped to take into account the priorities of the Contracting Authority relating to economic, social, and environmental well-being.
NECS utilised an electronic tendering system to manage this procurement and communicate with tenderers. Accordingly, there were no hard copy documents issued to tenderers and all communications with NECS including tender submission, were conducted via the portal hosted by (In-Tend), the managed service provider for the NECS electronic tendering system.