Provision of Managed Pathology Services

The Lancashire and South Cumbria Pathology Service (The Service), as the collaborative pathology service of Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (LTH), East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust (ELHT), Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (BTH) and University Hospitals Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust (UHMB) are notifying the market of our intention to undertake a procurement exercise to be conducted under the Procurement Act 2023, following the competitive flexible procedure to select a primary managed service provider to supply the services’ Pan Pathology Managed Service.<br/><br/>The Service also gives notification that it intends to undertake preliminary market engagement prior to the procurement, to assist with scope and future service modelling.<br/><br/>The future contract will be hosted on behalf of the service by Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (LTH).<br/><br/>The future procurement exercise is intended to result in a managed service which provides a flexible, quality and patient focused innovative service in line with best practice ensuring The Service meets the needs of its patients.<br/><br/>The Service is looking to partner with a primary provider to:<br/>

• underpin the ambition of The Service as an exemplar Pathology Service now and in the future<br/>
• keep pace and evolve with the rapidly changing dynamics of delivering Pathology Services<br/>The procurement exercise is intended to find a provider who will:<br/>
• Provide a state-of-the-art solution which can support the requirements today and in the future ensuring there is flexibility to adopt innovative solutions during the term of the contract;<br/>
• Provide a solution that meets the quality and speed of testing required by our patients and clinicians and which meets local and national turnaround times;<br/>
• Deploy and expand Point of Care testing in hospitals and primary care and self-testing at home;<br/>
• Facilitate cross site working and consistent processes to allow flexibility across The Collaborative;<br/>
• Support the transformational plans across the trusts, offering the flexibility of solution to support any consolidation of testing between laboratories;<br/><br/>The intended outcome of the procurement exercise is to contract with a Primary Provider who agrees to the contract evolving during its life. This will require on-going assessment, implementation of innovative changes and collaborative working with the provider and potential sub-contractors over the life of the contract. The way the service looks at the end of the contract will likely be very different to the initial implementation. <br/><br/>The Service is using the Health Family Atamis e-tendering portal to conduct the procurement process (the "e-Tendering Portal"). The e-Tendering Portal can be accessed via the link: health-family.force.com/s/Welcome ↗ . All communications (including submission of Tenders) should be carried out via the e-Tendering Portal. The procurement documents are available for unrestricted full direct access, free of charge via the e-Tendering Portal.