Public procurement notice: Contract Notice
Published: 2017-10-25
Buyer: Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Competitive procedure with negotiation
CPV classification: 32412100 | 32413100 | 32424000 | 32427000 | 32429000
Estimated value: 25000000 GBP
Submission deadline: 2017-11-22
Award criteria: The most economic tender

Technical requirements: This procurement seeks to award a five year services contract between Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust and the successful bidder. The contract will be to deliver Telecommunications Network Services to RCHT for its own benefit and to other end users in health and social care sector that make up the Cornwall Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP). The contract will have a mechanism for increasing the volume of services to be delivered in the event of increased demand and/or new end users. The contract will only be awarded to a supplier who has been accredited at the point of award by NHS Digital as being HSCN Compliant to Stage 2. The appointed supplier will be required to Design and implement an integrated network to replace and transform the current services; perform the associated transition and migration with pace; provide a fully integrated voice and data network; provide the ongoing delivery and management of the solution.
This procurement seeks to award a five year services contract between Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust (‘RCHT’) and the successful bidder. The contract will be to deliver Telecommunications Network and Voice Services to the Authority, who will be holding the contract on behalf of the Cornwall COIN stakeholders in addition to a number of other end users within the health and social care sector in Cornwall who shall be entitled to benefit from the services under the contract. As such, the contract will have a mechanism for increasing the volume of services to be delivered in the event of increased demand and/or new end users.The contract will only be awarded to a supplier who has been accredited at the point of award by NHS Digital as being HSCN Compliant to Stage 2.
https://digital.nhs.uk/health-social-care-network/suppliers The appointed supplier will be required to, design and implement an integrated Data and Voice network to replace and transform the current services; perform the associated transition and migration from the existing provider(s) to the new solution with pace; and provide the ongoing delivery and management of the solution collectively known as the Network and Voice Services.
The Contracting Authority shall have the option to renew for one or more periods which shall not total more than 24 months in total.
The Contracting Authority intends to invite 5 candidates to tender on the basis of the order of the highest ranking candidates at the SQ stage, and as described in the SQ. The Contracting Authority reserves its right to extend this to up to 7 candidates if the scoring between 5th and 7th placed candidates is very close and/or to ensure a genuine competition or decrease this number to 4 where there is a clear difference between the scoring of the 4th and 5th placed candidate and/or in other circumstances at the Contracting Authority's discretion. During the SQ stage submissions will be assessed and marked following which, and based on the order of ranking, the Contracting Authority will exercise its sole and absolute discretion to determine the number of candidates to be invited to negotiate.
The Contracting Authority shall have the option to renew for one or more periods which shall not total more than 24 months in total.
This is a single lot tender with the aim of appointing a partner for the Trust to deliver the services. Consortium and sub-contractor bid structures are allowable. The scope of the services resulting from this procurement are envisaged to be between 6 000 000 GBP and  25 000 000 GBP dependent on the Trust's service delivery programme with its Health and Social Care partner organisations.
Companies should register their interest and respond to the contract notice using the link to the e-tendering portal https://uk.eu-supply.com. Potential suppliers are required to click on the current opportunities button on the e-tendering site to view details of this procurement and then use the online registration link to enter their company details within the form to register company details, there is a ‘Test’ button to verify the identified e-mail address. It is strongly recommended that this is used, to ensure validity and effectiveness of the link registered for messages to/from the e-tendering site. Once the registration screen has been completed and an e-mail confirming successful registration of the company has been received from CTM, suppliers can continue to follow the on screen prompts to register an expression of interest in any particular tender. Details of the process to be followed are also available in ‘A Suppliers First Step Guide’ from the CTM login page. The guide will explain some of the requirements and procedures involved when responding to a tender. For more detailed information there is a second document ‘Suppliers User Guide’ that can be found on the CTM home page. It should be noted that publication of this notice does not provide any commercial guarantee that a contract will be concluded. It does not bind the Trust to accept any offer and reserves the right to accept an offer in either whole or part. The Contracting authority is not responsible for any costs incurred by bidders in relation to participation in this process. The contracting authority considers that this contract may be suitable for economic operators that are small or medium enterprises (SMEs), however, any selection of tenderers will be based solely on the criteria set out for the procurement. The Contracting Authority expressly reserves the right: not to award any contract as a result of the procurement process; to make any changes it may see fit to the content and structure of the tendering competition; to award one or more public contract(s) in relation to part only of the requirements covered by this notice; and to award a contract(s) in stages. The Authority shall not be liable to any bidder for any costs incurred.
The Authority will incorporate a minimum 10 calendar day standstill period at the point information on the award of a contract is communicated to tenderers. Applicants who are unsuccessful shall be informed by the Authority as soon as possible after the decision has been made as to the reasons why the Applicant was unsuccessful. If an appeal regarding the award of the contract has not been successfully resolved, the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 provide for aggrieved parties who have been harmed or are at risk of harm by breach of the rules to take action in the High Court (England, Wales, and Northern Ireland). Any such action must generally be brought within 30 days. If a declaration of ineffectiveness is sought, any such action must be brought within 30 days where the Authority has communicated the award of the contract and a summary of reasons to tenderers, or otherwise within 6 months of the contract being entered into. Where a contract has not been entered into, the Court may order the setting aside of the award decision or order the Authority to amend any document and may award damages. If the contract has been entered into the Court may, depending on the circumstances, award damages, make a declaration of ineffectiveness, order the Authority to pay a fine, and/or order that the duration of the contract be shortened. The purpose of the standstill period referred to above is to allow the parties to apply to the Courts to set aside the award decision before the contract is entered into.

Eligibility requirements: See Selection Questionnaire.

Award value: 25000000