Provision of Support Services for Lateral Flow Testing

Concepts

• miscellaneous health services
• provision of support services for lateral flow testing
• slough
• provision of support services
• undertake lateral flow tests
• lateral flow testing
• free service
• number of tests
• lateral flow testing sites
• test result

Location

Berkshire: Slough

Description

Provision of support services to operate lateral flow testing sites for COVID-19

Total Quantity or Scope

Staffing and logistics to deliver lateral flow testing (LFT) services for SARS-Cov-2 within the Borough of Slough. The supplier will: • Provide a free service to service-users at point of delivery • Undertake Lateral flow tests at sites specified by the council and within defined opening times • Deliver in line with the LFT Standard Operating Procedure, published by Department of Health & Social Care • Work in partnership with the Council to set up and management the site • Deliver a COVID-19 safe service with social distancing, personal protective equipment and face coverings • Deliver the service using appropriately trained staff, this will include a clinician onsite • Provide timely upload to the data collection website • Report on the number of tests taken daily for the initial two weeks, and move to weekly monitoring • Collect demographic data - sex, age, postcode and contact details of each individual tested • Advise the public on their test result and the need for whole household isolation and a confirmatory swab test (PCR test) in the case of a positive test • Provide reports on testing activity • Deliver the service in line with appropriate clinical and information governance throughout the testing process.

Award Detail

Award Criteria

CPV Codes

• 85140000 - Miscellaneous health services

Legal Justification

Explanation of the use of the Negotiated Procedure: 1) The Covid-19 outbreak is a public health emergency of international concern declared by WHO on 30 January 2020. The WHO Director General characterised Covid-19 as a pandemic on 11 March 2020. 2) An important element of ensuring an appropriate response is ensuring adequate testing. In December 2020, Slough was selected as a pilot site for lateral flow testing and awarded a short term contract to Solutions 4 Health for this pilot. 3) At the end of the pilot, the UK Government wished for the service to continue. The Council therefore used the extension period in the short term contract; the maximum contract permissible was 6 weeks initial term plus three months. 4) The UK Government continues to wish for these services to be provided to the community. 5) The Council therefore wishes to vary the existing contract to provide a further extension period of up to one year; the Council may at any time reduce services should they no longer be necessary without cost i.e. if lateral flow testing is no longer required, the Council is not required to have services provided from a point of time it instructs. 6) The Council is satisfied that the tests permitting use of the negotiated procedure without prior publication (Regulation 32(2)(c)) are met: (a) As far as is strictly necessary: The lateral flow tests were identified as strictly necessary to meet the demand to scale up the UK's mass testing programme and continue to play a key role in the control of COVID. The contract is only for these services and the Council may reduce those services at any time. (b) There are genuine reasons for extreme urgency: the global demand for rapid antigen detection tests based on lateral flow technology (lateral flow devices, LFD) has recently significantly increased. The Council has been instructed by Government to rapidly test the local population to assist in the reduction of the Covid-19 infection rate across the Borough and was requested to have sites operational as pilots in short order. (c) The events that have led to the need for extreme urgency were unforeseeable: the timing of availability of new Covid-19 lateral flow test technology meeting the UK technical requirements combined with international demand and limited global capacity was not foreseeable. (d) It is impossible to comply with the usual timescales in the Public Contracts Regulations: it was not possible to comply with the timescales of another procedure due to the urgent requirement to ensure the provision of the pilot lateral flow tests services within the Borough and the Council was not able to tender services for the further period due to the nature of the funding and there is insufficient time to transition services. (e) The situation is not attributable to the contracting authority - the Council has not done anything to cause or contribute to the need for extreme urgency. The root cause is COVID-19 and the requirement for speed was set by the Department for Health and Social Care. The Council did not publish an VEAT notice earlier as its commitments did not exceed the relevant thresholds. The ongoing need for such testing means these thresholds may be exceeded during the term if services continue to be required. This reflects the short term nature of the initial contract.

Other Information

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