Public procurement notice: Contract Award Notice
Published: 2020-07-03
Buyer: Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust
Country: UK
Contract type: Supplies
Procedure: Negotiated without a prior call for competition
CPV classification: 18140000 | 33000000
Estimated value: 285000 GBP
Award criteria: Lowest price

Technical requirements: Lääketieteelliset laitteet, farmaseuttiset valmisteet ja henkilökohtaiseen hygieniaan liittyvät tuotteet
Supply of Personal Protective Equipment for Healthcare Workers for the Care of Patients with Suspected or Confirmed Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19)
Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (the ‘Authority’) has awarded a contract to Bentley Nursing Supplies for the supply of personal protective equipment to safeguard the health and lives of the care professionals treating patients with Covid-19.
1) The Coronavirus disease (Covid-19) is a serious infectious respiratory disease and its consequences pose a risk to life. The Covid-19 outbreak is a Public Health Emergency of International Concerns as declared by the World Health Organisation on 30 January 2020. The WHO Director General characterised Covid-19 as a pandemic on 11 March 2020, by this stage Europe was the centre of the pandemic.
2) The use of personal protective equipment (PPE) is critical in safeguarding the health and lives of the care professionals treating patients with Covid-19. Delays in procuring the PPE poses a risk to life of those on the front line and the likelihood of significantly increased death toll.
3) In March the NHS experienced severe shortages of PPE, modelling based the trajectory of other European countries forecast the need for significant and extremely rapid increase in the UK PPE capacity. Similar shortfalls in PPE stocks were identified globally. There was immense demand for PPE, requiring the UK government to actively seek and create new supply chains rapidly to meet that demand. In these circumstances, a procurement following the usual timescales under the PCR 2015, including accelerated options, was impossible. PPE manufacturers and supply chains were under immediate and unprecedented global pressure to provide products. A delay in engaging with the market by running a usual procurement process ran the risk of failing to acquire the necessary stock of PPE equipment and presenting a significant risk to life.
4) Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT) is satisfied the tests permitting use of the negotiated procedure without prior publication (Regulation 32(2)(c)) were met:
PPE was identified as strictly necessary to meet anticipated demand on the NHS during the first wave of cases in the UK.
MFT are responding to Covid-19 immediately because of public health risks presenting a genuine emergency.
As the Commission itself confirmed: ‘The current Coronavirus crisis presents an extreme and unforeseeable urgency — precisely for such a situation our European rules enable public buyers to buy within a matter of days, even hours, if necessary.’ (Commissioner Breton, Internal Market, 1 April 2020).
Due to the urgency of the situation there was no time to run an accelerated procurement under the open, restricted or competitive procedures with negotiation that would allow MFT to secure delivery of products, particularly in light of the corresponding delays to timelines associated with securing supply of the PPE equipment.
MFT has not caused or contributed to the Coronavirus crisis, which justifies the need for extreme urgency.
Award of a contract without prior publication of a call for competition in the Official Journal of the European Union in the cases listed below:
• extreme urgency brought about by events unforeseeable for the contracting authority and in accordance with the strict conditions stated in the directive.


Winner: Bentley Nursing Supplies
Award value: 285000
Number of bids: 1