United Kingdom-Normanton: Culture medium

Type of document: Invitation to tender
Country: United Kingdom
OJEU Ref: (15/S 216-393686/EN)
Nature of contract: Supply contract
Procedure: Open procedure
Regulation of procurement: EU – with participation by GPA countries
Award criteria: Most economic bid
Type of bid required: Partial bid

Contract notice
Supplies
Directive 2004/18/EC
Section I: Contracting authority
I.1) Name addresses and contact point(s):
NHS Supply Chain acting as agent for NHS Business Services Authority
Foxbridge Way
Normanton
Postal code: WF6 1TL
United Kingdom
Contact points(s): NUTS Code UKE4
For the attention of: Mary Emeny
Phone: +44 7730204254
Email: mary.emeny@supplychain.nhs.uk
Fax: +44 1924328744
Internet Address(es):
General address of the contracting authority: www.supplychain.nhs.uk
Further information can be obtained from: NHS Supply Chain acting as agent for NHS Business Services Authority
Internet address:

Specifications and additional documents (including documents for competitive dialogue and a dynamic purchasing system) can be obtained from: NHS Supply Chain acting as agent for NHS Business Services Authority
Internet address:

Tenders or requests to participate must be sent to: NHS Supply Chain acting as agent for NHS Business Services Authority
Internet address:

I.2) Type of the contracting authority:
National or federal agency/office
I.3) Main activity: Health
I.4) Contract award on behalf of other contracting authorities/entities:
The contracting authority is purchasing on behalf of other contracting authorities: Yes
Section II: Object of the contract:
II.1) Description:
II.1.1) Title attributed to the contract by the contracting authority/entity:
‘Microbiology Serology Virology and Immunology (including Molecular Testing) Equipment Consumables and Reagents’.
II.1.2) Type of contract and location of works, place of delivery or of performance:
Supplies
Type of supplies contract: Purchase
Main site or location of works, place of delivery or of performance: ‘Various locations in UK’.
Nuts code: UK, UKE4
II.1.3) Information about a public contract, a framework agreement or a dynamic purchasing system (DPS):
The notice involves the establishment of a framework agreement:
II.1.4) Information on framework agreement:
Framework agreement with several operators
Duration of the framework agreement in years: 2
Estimated total value of purchases for the entire duration of the framework agreement
Estimated value excluding VAT:
Range: between 44 000 000 and 91 000 000 GBP
II.1.5) Short description of the specific contract:
The requirement is to create a comprehensive framework agreement for Microbiology Serology Virology and Immunology (including Molecular Testing) Equipment Consumables and Reagents to supply to NHS Supply Chain depots via the Stock/Blue Diamond and to the NHS Supply Chain customer base via the Direct/E-Direct Route.
NHS Supply Chain may (but shall not be required to) purchase the goods subject to the Framework Agreement using any of the following methods: Reagent Rental Reagents only (with or without commitment) Equipment only (with or without commitment).
The following categories are included:
— Identification/Manual testing kits;
— Quality control organisms;
— Manual antimicrobial susceptibility testing;
— Pre-poured and dehydrated microbiological culture media and broth;
— Automated blood culture systems;
— Random access immunoassay systems;
— Automated identification and susceptibility systems;
— Automated identification of tuberculosis systems;
— Automated open immunoassay ELISA processors (Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay);
— Automated Immunofluorescence Assay (IFA) processor;
— Automated urinalysis systems;
— Automated plate streakers;
— MALDI-TOF automated identification (Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption/ Ionization-Time of Flight);
— Total laboratory automation systems;
— Automated molecular testing systems.
This Framework Agreement is for 2 years with the option for NHS Supply Chain to extend it for up to a further 24 months.
II.1.6) Common procurement vocabulary (CPV): 24931250, 33124100, 33124110, 33124130, 33127000, 33141625, 33696200, 33696300, 33696500, 33698100, 38433100, 38434000, 38434520, 38434580, 38436150, 71900000, 85111800, 50400000, 50430000, 50410000, 50412000, 50413000
II.1.7) Information about Government Procurement Agreement (GPA):
The contract is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA): YES
II.1.8) Lots:

II.1.9) Information about variants:
Variants will be accepted:
II.2) Quantity or scope of the contract:
II.2.1) Total quantity or scope:
‘This is an estimate only as precise quantities of likely purchases are unknown. It is anticipated that initial expenditure will be in the region of 7 000 000 GBP to 12 000 000 GBP in the first year of this Framework Agreement however this is approximate only and the values may vary depending on the requirements of those bodies purchasing under the Framework Agreement. The figure below for the total estimated value is based on this initial expenditure estimate adjusted to take account of additional demand during the initial 2 year period and possible 24 month extension’.
Estimated value excluding VAT:
Range: between 44 000 000 and 91 000 000 GBP
II.2.2) Information about options:
Options:yes
Description of these options:‘NHS Supply Chain will have the option to extend this Framework Agreement for up to a maximum period of 24 months in addition to the initial 2-year period upon review’.
II.2.3) Information about renewals:
II.3) Duration of the contract or time limit for completion:
Duration in months: 24 (from the award of the contract)
Information about lots
Lot No: 1; Lot title: Microbiology, serology, virology and immunology (including molecular testing) equipment, consumables and reagents
1) Short description: See II.1.5).
2) Common procurement vocabulary (CPV): 24931250,33124100,33124110,33124130,33127000,33141625,33696200,33696300,33696500,33698100,38433100,38434000,38434520,38434580,38436150,71900000,85111800,50400000,50430000,50410000,50412000,50413000
3) Quantity or scope:
‘This is an estimate only as precise quantities of likely purchases are unknown. It is anticipated that initial expenditure will be in the region of 7 000 000 GBP to 12 000 000 GBP in the first year of this Framework Agreement however this is approximate only and the values may vary depending on the requirements of those bodies purchasing under the Framework Agreement. The figure below for the total estimated value is based on this initial expenditure estimate adjusted to take account of additional demand during the initial 2 year period and possible 24 month extension’.
Estimated value excluding VAT: GBP
4) Indication about different date for duration of contract or starting/completion:
Duration in months: 24 (from the award of the contract)
5) Additional information about lots:

Section III: Legal, economic, financial and technical information
III.1) Conditions relating to the contract:
III.1.1) Deposits and guarantees required:
‘Parent company or other forms of guarantee may be required in certain circumstances. Further details will be in the tender documents’.
III.1.2) Main financing conditions and payment arrangements and/or reference to the relevant provisions governing them:
‘Please see tender documents’.
III.1.3) Legal form to be taken by the group of economic operators to whom the contract is to be awarded:
‘The Contracting Authority reserves the right to require groupings of entities to take a particular form or to require one party to undertake primary legal liability or to require that each party undertakes joint and several liability’.
III.1.4) Other particular conditions:
The performance of the contract is subject to particular conditions: yes
Description of particular conditions: ‘The Framework Agreement includes obligations with respect to environmental issues and a requirement for successful suppliers to comply with the NHS Supply Chain Code of Conduct’.
III.2) Conditions for participation:
III.2.1) Personal situation of economic operators, including requirements relating to enrolment on professional or trade registers:
Information and formalities necessary for evaluating if the requirements are met: ‘Submission of expression of interest and procurement specific information: please note whilst there are no Lots in this Framework Agreement “Lot” references are still used within this document and are for system use only.
This procurement exercise will be conducted on the NHS Supply Chain eTendering portal at
Candidates wishing to be considered for this contract must register their expression of interest and provide additional procurement-specific information (if required) through the NHS Supply Chain eTendering portal as follows.
Registration.
1. Use URL to access the NHS Supply Chain Procurement portal;
2. If not yet registered:
— click on the “Not Registered Yet” link to access the registration page;
— complete the registration pages as guided by the mini guide found on the landing page.
Portal access.
If registration has been completed:
— login with URL
— click on the “Supplier Dashboard” icon to open the list of new procurement events.
Expression of interest.
— View Contract Notice content by clicking on the “view notice” button for the procurement event. This opens a Pdf Document;
— Express an interest by clicking on the “express interest” button;
— To start the response process after the expression of interest has been done select the “My Active Opportunities” option and click on the “Apply” button;
— Select the procurement event from the list by clicking on the description;
— In the detail view click on the orange coloured “Framework Agreement” button to start responding to the tender.
Tender response.
— Applicants are required to read all Framework Header Documents which can be accessed using the “NHS SC header documents” button which is located in the “select framework” tab.
— Applicants are required to upload the documents detailed in 8.2 of the ITT using the “supplier header documents” button which is located in the “select framework” tab.
— A preview of the Lot line details can be viewed using the “Lot header” tab by selecting the Lot and using the “Lot line information” button. In order to respond to a Lot Applicants must select the relevant Lot and then use the “express intent” button.
— Complete price offers per line for the Lot by completing the required fields for the lines the Applicant wants to include in the bid using the “lot line detail” tab.
— Applicants are required to answer all mandatory Lot specific questions found in the “lot evaluation criteria”.
— Accept the ISS “terms and conditions” button to access this function.
— Submit Lot response by clicking on The “submit Submission Report” button In The “submit Individual Lot Response(s)” Tab to submit responses for the Lot.
Applicants are able to view their submission using the “supplier submission report” button found in the “submit individual lot response(s)” tab’.
III.2.2) Economic and financial ability:
III.2.3) Technical capacity
III.2.4) Information about reserved contracts:
III.3) Conditions specific to services contracts:
III.3.1) Information about a particular profession:
III.3.2) Staff responsible for the execution of the service:
Section IV: Procedure
IV.1) Type of procedure:
IV.1.1) Type of procedure:
Open
IV.1.2) Limitations on the number of operators who will be invited to tender or to participate:
IV.1.3) Reduction of the number of operators during the negotiation or dialogue:
IV.2) Award criteria:
IV.2.1) Award criteria:
The most economically advantageous tender in terms of the criteria stated in the specifications, in the invitation to tender or to negotiate or in the descriptive document
IV.2.2) Information about electronic auction:
IV.3) Administrative information:
IV.3.1) File reference number attributed by the contracting authority/entity:
IV.3.2) Previous publication(s) concerning the same contract:
Prior information notice
Notice number in the OJEU:2014/S 195-344068of10.10.2014
IV.3.3) Conditions for obtaining specifications and additional documents or descriptive document:

IV.3.4) Time limit for receipt of tenders or requests to participate:
17.12.2015 – 15:00
IV.3.5) Date of dispatch of invitations to tender or to participate to selected candidates:
IV.3.6) Language(s) in which tenders or requests to participate may be drawn up:
EN
IV.3.7) Minimum time frame during which the tenderer must maintain the tender:
In days: 180 (from the date stated for receipt of tender)
IV.3.8) Conditions for opening of tenders:
18.12.2015 – 9:00
Place:As in abovementioned I.1).
Persons authorised to be present at the opening of tenders: yes.
Additional information about authorised persons and opening procedure: ‘Only the NHS Supply Chain contract owner or delegate’.

Section VI: Complementary information

VI.3) Additional information
‘Please note that the maximum number of suppliers as set out in II.1.) is an estimate only. Applicants should refer to section 9 of the Invitation to Tender for details of the scoring process to be used.
The term of contracts formed under the Framework Agreement may continue beyond the end of the term of the Framework Agreement itself. NHS Supply Chain expects to provide successful suppliers with the opportunity to offer additional savings to customers through the provision of discounted pricing value added offerings and commitment/bulk buy initiatives.
NHS Supply Chain will share savings information in order to assist its customers with making informed procurement decisions.
The Framework Agreement is for the supply of Microbiology Serology Virology and Immunology (including Molecular Testing) Equipment Consumables and Reagents (on an outright purchase or reagent rental basis). Applicants may tender for one more than one or all of the Goods. NHS Supply Chain anticipates awarding the 80 highest scoring Applicants per Product Line to the Framework Agreement to supply that Product Line. Applicants may be appointed across one or a number of Product Lines.
NHS Supply Chain will be entitled to purchase the supplies and/or services identified in the tender documents as Non-Direct Contract Products which it will then make available for purchase by:
1) any NHS Trust;
2) any other NHS entity;
3) any government department agency or other statutory body (for the avoidance of doubt including local authorities) and/or
4) any private sector entity active in the UK healthcare sector.
For the supplies and/or services identified as Direct Contract Products in the tender documents:
1) NHS Supply Chain;
2) Any NHS Trust;
3) Any other NHS entity;
4) Any government department agency or other statutory body and/or
5) Any private sector entity active in the UK healthcare sector will be able to enter into a direct contract with the Supplier for any of the supplies and/or services under the Framework.
For Direct Contract Products the Supplier will be required to report to and pay a direct contract management fee to NHS Supply Chain as detailed in the tender documents.
The evaluation is based on pricing for the E-Direct route to market and it is mandatory to provide pricing for this route. Applicants are also invited to submit non-mandatory pricing for Stock Blue Diamond routes and Direct.
The Participating Authority may enter reagent rental arrangements with any successful supplier. Further details are set out in the Invitation to Tender.
The Participating Authorities reserve the right to finance the purchase of the supplies through a lease transaction using a third party lessor. Any such financial services will be obtained by the Participating Authorities through a separate procurement exercise and not as part of this procurement exercise. The financial services may be sourced from the NHS Supply Chain leasing Framework Agreement. In this event the Applicant appointed to the Framework Agreement may receive from a third party lessor appointed by the Participating Authority a purchase order for delivery to the Participating Authority.
Electronic ordering will be used and electronic invoicing will be accepted and electronic payment will be used’.
VI.4) Procedures for appeal:
VI.4.1) Body responsible for appeal procedures:
Not applicable
Body responsible for mediation procedures:
Not applicable
VI.4.2) Lodging of appeals:
Precise information on deadline(s) for lodging appeals:‘Precise information on deadline(s) for lodging appeals: any appeals to be lodged in accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015’.
VI.5) Date of dispatch of this notice:
04.11.2015