Supply of Personal Protective Equipment for Healthcare Workers for the Care of Patients with Suspected or Confirmed Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Concepts

• department of health and social care
• supply of personal protective equipment
• garments
• social care
• supply of personal protective equipment for healthcare workers for the care of patients with suspected or confirmed novel coronavirus
• care of patients
• healthcare workers
• biological or chemical protection
• care workers
• confirmed novel coronavirus

Location

London

Description

The Department of Health and Social Care [the 'Authority'] has awarded a contract for the supply of personal protective equipment, respirators FFP3, to protect health and care workers for contracting the COVID-19 disease.

Total Quantity or Scope

The Department of Health and Social Care [the 'Authority'] has awarded a contract for the supply of personal protective equipment, face masks, to protect health and care workers for contracting the COVID-19 disease.

Award Detail

Award Criteria

CPV Codes

• 35113410 - Garments for biological or chemical protection

Indicators

• Award on basis of price.

Legal Justification

1. The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a serious infectious respiratory disease and its consequences pose a risk to life. The COVID-19 outbreak is a public health emergency of international concerns as declared by the World Health Organisation on 30 January 2020. The WHO Director General characterised COVID-19 as a pandemic on 11 March 2020, by this stage Europe was the centre of the pandemic. 2. The use of personal protective equipment (PPE) is critical in safeguarding the health and lives of the care professionals treating patients with COVID-19. Delays in procuring the PPE pose a risk to life of those on the front line and the likelihood of significantly increased death toll. 3. In March the NHS experienced severe shortages of PPE, modelling based the trajectory of other European countries forecast the need for significant and extremely rapid increase in the UK PPE capacity. Similar shortfalls in PPE stocks were identified globally. There was immense demand for PPE, requiring the UK government to actively seek and create new supply chains rapidly to meet that demand. In these circumstances, a procurement following the usual timescales under the PCR 2015, including accelerated options, was impossible. PPE manufacturers and supply chains were under immediate and unprecedented global pressure to provide products. A delay in engaging with the market by running a usual procurement process ran the risk of failing to acquire the necessary stock of PPE equipment and presenting a significant risk to life. The Department is content the tests permitting use of the negotiated procedure without prior publication (regulation 32(2)(c)) are met: 1 The purchasing of PPE was identified as strictly necessary to meet anticipated demand. 2. It is responding to COVID-19 immediately because of public health risks presenting a genuine emergency. 3. The events that led to the need for extreme urgency were unforeseeable: The Commission itself confirmed: ‘The current coronavirus crisis presents an extreme and unforeseeable urgency – precisely for such a situation our European rules enable public buyers to buy within a matter of days, even hours, if necessary.’ 4. There was no time to run an accelerated procurement under the open, restricted or competitive procedures with negotiation that would secure products within the required timescales. 5. The situation is not attributable to the contracting authority: It has not done anything to cause or contribute to the need for extreme urgency.