Provision of a Pathology managed service across South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw

In line with NHS Improvements national programme to review the current pathology services across England, with a view to consolidating services across a wider geographical footprint, The Trust, on behalf of the South Yorkshire & Bassetlaw Integrated Care System (SYB ICS) is proposing to take its Pathology laboratory services to the commercial market in a future procurement exercise to establish whether it can improve upon its current quality of service provision and secure financial savings in terms of a competitive commercial model based on a single pathology managed service contract across South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw.

The anticipated scope of the service is;

• Haematology
• Blood Transfusion
• Coagulation
• Immunoassay
• Clinical Biochemistry
• Immunology
• Cellular Pathology
• Mortuary
• Microbiology
• Virology
• New Born and Antenatal Screening
• Molecular
• Point of Care Testing (POCT)

SYB Pathology provides several successful and recognised specialist services. These include Metabolic Biochemistry and Newborn Screening at Sheffield Children's NHS FT and the Protein Reference Unit (PRU), Toxicology, Haemoglobinopathy screening and confirmation, Haemato-Oncology Diagnostic Service (HODS), and Coagulation at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS FT. Due to the complex nature of these services there is a requirement for flexibility in procurement of often highly specialised, limited-option equipment, IT solutions and consumables.

This notification acts as a Prior Information Notice to this future procurement requirement and also an expression of interest to potential suppliers who may wish to be involved in soft market testing we will be undertaking over the coming months. As part of the market engagement we wish to explore issues such as centralisation vs. disbursement of services, optimum duration of the contract, services to be included in-scope, future developments in the pathology market, the likely value of the opportunity to the market and the most appropriate procurement procedure. The soft-market testing process is envisaged to involve 'no obligation' site visits, a supplier engagement event, questionnaires, and interviews. The Trust intends to commence this with a supplier engagement event to be held on 15th July 2021. Service providers who are interested in participating in soft market testing and the supplier engagement event are invited to email SYBICS@akesoco.com by Friday 2nd July where your details will be stored and future updates and documents will be distributed from.

It is anticipated that the initial term for contract will be 10 years with options to extend (including a refresh option)

SYB reserves the right to change the lotting structure, scope, term of contract and procurement procedure as a result of the market engagement or any further engagement.

The supplier engagement will be held in accordance with Regulation 40 & 41 of the Public Contract Regulations 2015.