Public procurement notice: Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice
Published: 2019-04-30
Buyer: Public Health England
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Negotiated without a prior call for competition
CPV classification: 85100000: Health services | 85141000: Services provided by medical personnel
Estimated value: 120000 GBP
Award criteria: The most economic tender

Technical requirements: Public Health England (PHE) is planning to award provision of clinical advice services related to the Imported Fever to University College Hospital London (UCLH) and the Royal Liverpool Hospital Trust (RLUBHT).
The Imported Fever Service (IFS) is a national helpline and advice service providing access to urgent laboratory testing for clinicians dealing with patients who may have an unusual infection acquired abroad, including dangerous Viral Haemorrhagic Fevers (VHF, e.g. Ebola and Lassa fever) and other high consequence infectious diseases. The service is led by Public Health England (PHE) Rare and Imported Pathogens Laboratory (RIPL) in partnership with University College Hospital London (UCLH) and the Royal Liverpool Hospital Trust (RLUBHT).
The IFS is accessed through a single national number and operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for the advice line, also providing 24/7 laboratory testing when required by the patient’s condition. The IFS appears in the UK national algorithms as the starting point for investigation of potential VHF cases. The partner NHS Trusts support the service by providing additional expertise as the range of possible diagnoses is extremely wide, and by acting as a second on-call person Out-of-Hours so that the telephone line is always manned by 1 clinician from RIPL and 1 clinician from UCLH or Liverpool, rotating weekly. UCLH and RLUBHT are the principal centres for treating tropical diseases in the UK with a wide experience in the management and treatment of tropical diseases, including the only dedicated Consultant Parasitologist and Leprologist working within the UK. The service will also include a weekly national teleconference in which problem cases from across the UK are discussed. UCLH also operates the UK’s largest parasitology laboratory and the IFS benefits from this link for some of the more unusual tropical diseases caused by protozoa, ranging from malaria to trypanosomiasis.
Following an extensive market research and discussions with the technical experts a decision to choose negotiated procedure without prior publication of a call for competition in accordance with Article 32 of Directive 2014/24/EU was taken. Both operators: University College Hospital London (UCLH) and the Royal Liverpool Hospital Trust (RLUBHT) are 2 internationally recognised Centres in UK with the unique experience in the management and treatment of tropical diseases, including the only dedicated Consultant Parasitologist and Leprologist. The services to be provided by both centres under this contract fall under the Light Touch Regime (LTR), however the competitive tender to select 1 provider is not possible due to the nature of work, i.e. Imported Fever Service (IFS), which require the collaboration between all 3 parties: PHE, UCLH and RLUBHT to ensure exchange of the experience, knowledge and joint approach in detection, management and treatment of tropical diseases. Use of the VEAT notice, ensures compliance with the principles of equal treatment, fairness and transparency of the process, whilst the negotiation with the operators will deliver a value for money (VFM).


Winner: The Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust
Award value: 120000