Public procurement notice: Contract Award Notice
Published: 2019-05-22
Buyer: NHS England North (Cumbria and the North East)
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Open procedure
CPV classification: 85000000 | 85100000: Health services | 85130000: Dental practice services | 85131000
Estimated value: 4288000 GBP

Technical requirements: North of England Commissioning Support (NECS) is a commissioning support service hosted by NHS England and has managed the procurement process for and on behalf of NHS England (North) Cumbria and North East (the Contracting Authority). The Contracting Authority has procured comprehensive routine general dental services in Rothbury and Hadston/Amble, commencing on 1.12.2019 for an initial contract period of 7 years with the option to extend the contract period for a further 3 years.
The Contracting Authority set a minimum payment of 28.00 GBP to a maximum payment of 32.00 GBP per Unit of Dental Activity (UDA). Based upon the minimum/maximum payments per UDA for the 10 year contract (7 years plus 3 years) would have been approximately 3 752 000 GBP to 4 288 000 GBP.
The Contracting Authority has procured a comprehensive routine general dental service in Rothbury and Hadston/Amble, commencing on 1.12.2019 for an initial contract period of 7 years with the option to extend the contract period for a further 3 years.
The Contracting Authority set a minimum payment of 28.00 GBP to a maximum payment of 32.00 GBP per Unit of Dental Activity (UDA). Based upon the tender outcome the contract value for the 10 year contract (7 years plus 3 years) is 4 288 000 GBP.
The subject matter of the contract was scoped to take into account the priorities of the Contracting Authority relating to ‘economic, social, and environmental well-being’.
The basic principles of the open procedure was followed for this procurement to test the capacity, capability, and technical competence of bidders in accordance with The light-touch rules regime, Regulations 74 to 77 of The Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (SI 2015 No 102) (for health, social, education, and certain other service contracts).
This procurement was conducted via the NECS e-tendering system (Proactis) and as such there was no hardcopy documents issued to bidders and all communications between bidders and NECS, including tender submissions, was conducted via the Proactis portal.
Tender documentation was available via Proactis from 12:00 noon on 1.2.2019 and the closing time and date for receipt of tenders was 12:00 noon on 4.3.2019.
The Contracting Authority and NECS reserve the right to cancel the tender process at any point and will not be held liable for any costs resulting from any cancellation of the tender process or for any other costs incurred by those tendering for the contract.
The basic principles of the open procedure was followed for this procurement to test the capacity, capability, and technical competence of bidders in accordance with the light-touch rules regime, Regulations 74 to 77 of The Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (SI 2015 No 102) (for health, social, education, and certain other service contracts).
On viewing the tender documents for the first time, we advised bidders to check the clarifications section to ensure they did not miss any additional information that may have been issued prior to their expression of interest in the tender. We also advised to continue to check the clarifications section throughout the tender process.
The Contracting Authority would only accept documents for tenders or quotations placed on the e-Tendering portal to be received electronically unless explicitly stated otherwise in the bidder’s instructions.
Tenders submitted via the e-Tendering portal must be received in full prior to the closing time for receipt of tenders. Bidders were advised that uploading of large electronic files may take some time and as such bidders should allow sufficient time to fully transmit all files prior to the closing time for receipt of tenders.
The server clock displayed within the e-Tendering system governed the time for close of tender returns.
Tender documentation was available via Proactis from 12:00 noon on 1.2.2019 with a tender return time and date of 12:00 noon on 4.3.2019.


Winner: Northumbria Dental Care Ltd
Award value: 4288000
Number of bids: 3