SNBTS wishes to contract for the provision of a managed service comprising the supply of Integrated Red Cell Serology Testing technology, incorporating all equipment, test kits, reagents, relevant controls and calibrators, I.T.peripherals, delivery, installation, training and fully comprehensive systems maintenance.

The intention is to split the procurement into 2 separate Lots:

Lot 1 for Patient Services

Lot 2 for Donation Testing.

The five SNBTS Clinical laboratories provide comprehensive, 24 hours per day Blood Banking Services to their host hospitals. Reference work is undertaken for other hospitals in each area. The laboratories vary considerably in size, throughput and the range of tests performed. Thus the equipment needed at each site must be tailored to each laboratory’s needs but yet deliver single system working across SNBTS wherever possible.

A range of patient samples including paediatric, and increasing numbers of monoclonal therapy patients are referred for serological investigation by automated and manual testing. Testing is primarily performed on patient’s EDTA plasma samples but equipment/assays must be validated for EDTA and serum sample types.

; tests performed are:

- ABO RhD and K

- IAT screening (triple screen)

- DAT

- Antibody ID panel

- Serial titrations

- Phenotyping

Indicative numbers of samples tested per annum by each centre are as follows:

Edinburgh – 61,000 samples

Glasgow – 2,800 samples, predominantly samples referred for specialist serological investigation

Dundee – 39,000 samples

Inverness – 18,000 samples

Aberdeen – 51,000 samples

The Donation Testing Directorate requires a solution in Edinburgh (JCC) to perform automated testing. Indicative numbers of samples per annum are as follows:

- IAT Screening of donors (Triple Screen) – 15,000 samples

- Full ID panel – 300 samples

- DAT – 2500 samples

- ABO RhD – 2,250 samples

- Titre (1/50) – 300 samples

- Extended phenotype (Under consideration*)

*Donor Testing have an interest in a cost effective solution to automate extended phenotyping including Fya, Fyb, Jka, Jkb, M, S, s

Present demand for this test is driven by clinical requirements and can be quite variable each day. Time of testing each day is also variable.

Current testing is performed and reported against red book recommendations.

Donation Testing hours of operation are as follows:

Working day - 07:00am hours to 16:00pm hours Monday to Sunday (inclusive)

SNBTS would expect that customer support would be available during the laboratories core operating hours of 9.00am – 17.00pm, Monday – Friday, any proposed solution must ensure a robust level of resilience to maintain continuous service delivery to our users on each site