Non Emergency Patient Transport Service (NEPTS) for North West England

Midlands and Lancashire CSU is working with NHS Lancashire & South Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB); NHS Greater Manchester ICB; NHS Cheshire and Merseyside ICB; and NHS North East and North CUMBRIA ICB who are looking to undertake a procurement for the provision of Non-Emergency Patient Transport Services (NEPTS) to cover Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Cheshire, Merseyside and Cumbria delivering:

• Planned Patient Transport - for routine outpatient appointments
• Unplanned Patient Transport - for discharges / short notice bookings
• Enhanced Priority Service Transport -for time critical transport for patients attending for haemodialysis or oncology treatments

The contract is to be split into 3 LOTs covering the following geographical areas:

LOT 1 - Cheshire and Merseyside

LOT 2 - Greater Manchester

LOT 3 - Lancashire and Cumbria

Bidders are invited to bid for one, two or all of the LOTs available.

The value of the contract is£58,188,291 per annum across all 3 LOTs. A further breakdown of the contract values per LOT is below:

LOT 1: Cheshire and Merseyside

Annual Value: £21,786,724; Total Contract Value: £174,293,792

LOT 2: Greater Manchester

Annual Value: £17,314,806; Total Contract Value: £138,518,448

LOT 3: Lancashire and Cumbria

Annual Value: £19,086,761; Total Contract Value: £152,694,088

TOTAL OF ALL LOTs Annual Value:£58,188,291

TOTAL OF ALL LOTs Total Value:£465,506,328

For this procurement, the Authority may seek clarification on bids that are more than 10% lower or 10% higher than the financial envelope per LOT quoted above. Following clarification, it will reserve the right not to consider Bids that are either above the affordability threshold or unusually low.

The awarded contract(s) will be for an initial 5-year period with the option to extend for a further 3-year period.

To access the tender documentation and apply for this opportunity, please visit https://health-family.force.com/s/Welcome

Additional information: This procurement is for Social and other specific services which are Light Touch Regime services for the purpose of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 as specified in Schedule 3 of the Regulations ('Regulations') http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/102/schedule/3/made

Accordingly, the Contracting Authority is only bound by those parts of the Regulations detailed in Chapter 3 Particular Procurement Regime Section 7 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/102/part/2/chapter/3/made

The Contracting Authority is not voluntarily following any other part of the Regulations.

As the ICB is a relevant body for the purpose of the National Health Service (Procurement, Patient Choice and Competition) (No 2) Regulations 2013 these Regulations also apply to this procurement.

Right to Cancel: The Contracting Authority reserves the right to discontinue the procurement process at any time, which shall include the right not to award a contract or contracts, and does not bind itself to accept the lowest tender, or any tender received, and reserves the right to award a contract in part, or to call for new tenders should it consider this necessary.

The Contracting Authority shall not be liable for any costs or expenses incurred by any candidate or tenderer in connection with the completion and return of the information requested in this Contract Notice, or in the completion or submission of any tender, irrespective of the outcome of the competition or if the competition is cancelled or postponed.

All dates, time periods and values specified in this notice are provisional and the Contracting Authority reserves the right to change these.

Transparency: The Contracting Authority is subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR) and may be required to disclose information received in the course of this procurement under FOIA or the EIR.

In addition, and in accordance with the UK Government's policies on transparency, the contracting authority intends to publish procurement documentation and the text of any resulting contractual arrangements, subject to possible redactions at the discretion of the Contracting Authority.

Any redactions, whether in relation to information requests under FOIA, the EIR or policies on transparency will be in accordance with those grounds prescribed under the Freedom of Information Act. If and when this requirement is offered to tender, this will be done via electronic means using the internet. Midlands and Lancashire CSU is conducting this procurement exercise as a central purchasing body for another NHS body with whom the successful bidder(s) will enter into contracts for the supply of the services.

Any other public-sector body detailed within this notice, wishing to access the contract may do so only with permission from the contracting NHS body.

Further details will be made available via documentation and information released during the tender process.