NHS England South (South East) - Provision of a Breast Screening Programme for Surrey and North East Hampshire

NHS England seeks to commission a Breast Screening Programme for the residents of Surrey and North East Hampshire. The contract will serve an eligible population of approximately 187,000 women aged 50-70, as well as half of the 49,500 women who are 47 to 49 or 71 to 73 as part of the national age extension trial funded separately by PHE.

The major aim of the NHS breast screening programme is to reduce mortality from breast cancer.

The successful bidder will be required to deliver a screening programme which is fully compliant with all relevant national standards and pathways and which includes the following elements:

The population to be served by the programme will be those covered by the following 6 CCGs: NHS East Surrey, NHS Guildford and Waverley, NHS North East Hampshire and Farnham, NHS North West Surrey, NHS Surrey Heath and NHS Surrey Downs.

NHS E wish to be clear that the age extension trial is commissioned via a separate agreement between PHE and the provider of the breast screening programme in Surrey, and not by NHS E under the contract that will be let via this procurement process. More information can be found in the ITT documents. For transparency purposes as the programme provider will also deliver the age extension trial, the total contract value stated in this notice includes £380,604 per annum of age extension funding. NB: This is the current level of PHE funding, but funding from 2017 has yet to be agreed.

Additional details/description is continued in Additional Text below.

Additional information: Whilst there are no specific changes to the geographic footprint and population covered by this service anticipated at this point, the provider must be prepared to work with commissioners to implement any such alterations that do arise due to developments during the life of the contract

A prior information/early engagement notice was published in relation to this procurement in February 2016, seeking expressions of interest. Please note that this previous notice was an information gathering exercise rather than a call for competition in its own right. Although those who responded to that notice will be advised that this contract notice has been published, there will be no process exemptions or preferential treatment afforded to any parties who expressed an interest at that stage

NHS England will not be liable for costs incurred by any interested party in participating in this process

Interested parties who wish to take part in the procurement are invited to take part in an Invitation To Tender (ITT) process, based on the Open procedure, and designed to identify the Most Economically Advantageous Tender and therefore determine the incoming provider

The procurement will be conducted via the In-Tend eTendering Portal or can be accessed via the link https://in-tendhost.co.uk/scwcsu/aspx/ProjectManage/210

In order to access the tender documentation, you will need to 'express an interest' and register on the system for full access. Bidders are required to respond to questions directly within In-Tend and attach any requested documents separately to the placeholders provided.

All ITT responses must be returned by 12 Noon on 13th July 2016

The Services are healthcare services within the meaning and scope of Annex XIV of Directive 2014/24/EU ("the Directive") and Schedule 3 to the Public Contract Regulations 2015 ("the Regulations"). The tendering process will be conducted in accordance with the requirements and flexibilities provided by Articles 74 to 76 of the Directive, and Regulations 74 to 76 of the Regulations. The Authority will run a transparent tender process, treating all bidders equally. For the avoidance of doubt, the Authority will not be bound by the Regulations or the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union or any other regulations or legislation except for the specific parts or circumstances that apply to the procurement of these Services

Neither the inclusion of a bidder selection stage, nor the use of any language or terms found in the Directive or Regulations, nor the description of the procedure voluntarily adopted by the Authority ("Open", "Restricted", "Competitive Procedure with Negotiation", "Competitive Dialogue" or any other description), nor any other indication, shall be taken to mean that the Authority intends to hold itself bound by the Directive or Regulations, save by the provisions applicable to services coming within the scope of Annex XIV of the Directive / Schedule 3 of the Regulations.