Dental Lab provision

Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust (the Authority) seeks expressions of interest (EOI) from suitable suppliers to provide services for the provision and support for NHS Community Dental Laboratory technical services. We are looking to appoint a single supplier to cover the areas of East Kent and Inner and Outer North East London.

This Tender opportunity is for the provision of dental laboratory work (technical services) to Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust Dental Service.

The Lab services required are defined as the construction and delivery of dental appliances and technical services of advanced restorative, orthodontic and implantology with supporting compliance of all lab work with current and anticipated clinical governance and Health & Safety regulations.

The Authority requires a collection/delivery service to all sites as listed within the ITT documentation.

Our Main work is providing special care and paediatric dentistry, but we also provide family dentistry under the NHS and privately, and dental care for prisoners and within other secure institutions, such as immigration removal centres and secure mental health units.

Special care dentistry is for patients with significant impairment or disability. This may be physical, psychological, medical or social and who may require dental care to be adapted to them. The service also provides for patients that cannot access mainstream dentistry due to their physical and or psychological disability.

This includes patients who need adapted surgeries that can manage patients in wheelchairs. It is also about having staff with the skills to treat patients with complex medical histories, for which dentistry may be a high risk. An example of this is patients who have learning disabilities and are unable to understand the care or co-operate with the required care.

Special care dentistry is a core service for us. For most of our patients we are their only dentist and we recall some special care patients for regular examinations. Others can have regular examinations at their own family dentist, but need our support when having dental treatment.

Our Community Dental Service in east Kent provides a full range of community dentistry for those patients who unable to access NHS dentistry locally, require specialist interventions or need a home visit. NHS dental treatment includes all treatment necessary to maintain your oral health. We operate the service from 18 clinical facilities, two (2) mobile vehicles and four (4) HMP Prison environments.

The contract term for this opportunity is 3 years plus 2 x 12 month possible extensions.

The deadline for submission of Tenders is 5pm 25th August 2023.

Please express your interest via the Proactis/Due North e-tendering portal under Opportunity Ref DN509879. Suppliers can register for an account via the following link: https://procontract.due-north.com

ITT documentation will be available to those suppliers expressing an interest.