GHFT Pathology Managed Service

SCOPE Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (GHFT) aims to procure a managed service contract(s) to support the operations of various Pathology departments at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital and Cheltenham General Hospital.

This Prior Information Notice serves to notify potential suppliers about GHFT's intention to initiate the procurement process.

The specialisms within the scope of this procurement exercise are: • Pre & Post Analytics • Cellular Pathology • Chemical Pathology • Haematology, Immunology & Transfusion medicine • Infection Sciences It has not yet been formally decided whether Point of Care testing is within the scope of this procurement.

THE MANAGED SERVICE • The scope of the Managed Service includes: • The provision and maintenance of all pathology equipment, associated IT interfaces, middleware, and licenses • The provision of all associated consumables, reagents, test kits, quality control/calibration material essential for the delivery of the activity • The transferring of existing assets and contracts • The end-to-end management and delivery of the Supply Chain, incorporating all products and the execution of a full Inventory Management System This procurement exercise is not intended to be an outsourcing of the services to another provider.

Instead, it is the provision and management of the equipment, technology, reagents, and other consumables.

GHFT will provide the facilities for the suppliers to install their equipment and deliver their consumables and services, but GHFT's pathology department will provide the staff to operate the equipment and deliver the results/outcomes daily.

Due to the complex nature of these services, there is a requirement for flexibility in the procurement of often highly specialised, limited-option equipment, IT solutions, and consumables.