Public procurement notice: Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice
Published: 2016-08-06
Buyer: Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust
Country: UK
Region: Walsall and Wolverhampton
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Contract award without prior publication
CPV classification: 45215000: Construction work for health buildings | 45215100 | 45215120 | 45215130 | 45215140
Award criteria: Lowest price

Technical requirements: In 2007, the Trust entered into an arrangement with the Walsall Hospital Company plc (‘ProjectCo’) to provide certain services and facilities under the HM Government Private Finance Initiative. Due to circumstances which the Trust did not foresee at the time, the contractual documents must be varied to include the development and provision of ongoing services for an intensive care unit, a maternity and neonatal unit, and an emergency unit encompassing two additional medical wards.
The Trust intends to extend the scope of the original project agreement to require ProjectCo to undertake the following activities: i) enabling works, demolition, refurbishment and new build in respect of a new integrated critical care unit (‘ICCU’). In addition, this will require the provision of Hard FM services to the extended estate; ii) the refurbishment of the existing maternity and neonatal facilities, the introduction of a second (co-located) obstetric theatre and the provision of additional neonatal cots to include ITU and HDU facilities to meet modern health building standards (the ‘Maternity and Neonatal Project’); and iii) enabling works, reconfiguration of existing facilities and new build in respect of a new emergency department, encompassing 2 new additional medical wards (the ‘ED Project’).
ProjectCo will task Skanska to facilitate a competitive tender process, for contractors to carry out the various parts of the ED Project. Further details concerning such opportunities will be advertised in due course. The contract variation will also include the provision of Hard FM services by Skanska for the ongoing support/maintenance of the developments.
The Trust is of the opinion that the ICCU, Maternity and Neonatal Project and the ED Project meet the requirements of regulation 72(1)(c) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 for the following reasons:
i) the need for the modification to the original contractual documentation was not foreseen by the Trust at the time of entering into the Project Agreement. The Trust undertook a capacity mapping exercise prior to entering into the arrangement, however due to an increase in capacity requirements as a result of the closure of surrounding facilities (a factor out with the control of the Trust and which was not anticipated/foreseeable at the time at which the Project Agreement was entered into), coupled with the relocation of the new Midland Metropolitan Hospital due to open in October 2018 (which will result in an increase of patients at Walsall Hospital due to the reallocation of patients within the local catchment area), a requirement for additional facilities has unexpectedly arisen;
ii) the nature of the works and services required of ProjectCo remain the same as those originally envisaged at the time of advertising the original contract opportunity. The Trust does not consider that any modification to the Project Agreement as a result of the above projects, will extend the overall nature of the contract; and
iii) the increase in the price payable by the Trust in order to accommodate the variation will not exceed 50 % of the value of the original contract (the original value of the contract being 130 000 000).
Walsall Hospital Project Company will task Skanska to facilitate a competitive tender process in respect of the ED Project, as part of the contract variation, for contractors to carry out the various parts of the development.
The anticipated value of each project is as follows: i) the ICCU project is estimated to be in the region of between 7 600 000 GBP and 9 700 000 GBP (the costs for construction 7 900 000, with the remainder relating to the purchase of medical equipment and fit-out); ii) the Maternity and Neonatal Project is estimated to be in the region of between 5 600 000 GBP; iii) the ED Project is estimated to be in the region of between 10 000 000 GBP - 15 000 000 GBP.