Patient Questionnaire Framework for Department of Health

London: market research services

Range: between 25 000 000,00 and 60 000 000,00 GBP. 5 suppliers required over 5 year period.

Contract notice

Services

Directive 2004/18/EC

Section I: Contracting authority

I.1)Name, addresses and contact point(s)

Department of Health as lead authority on behalf of contracting authorities as stated in Annex A
Skipton House, 80 London Road
Contact point(s): Procurement Centre of Expertise (PCoE)
For the attention of: Paul J Davies
SE1 6LH London
UNITED KINGDOM

Internet address(es):

General address of the contracting authority: http://www.dh.gov.uk

Address of the buyer profile: http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Aboutus/Procurementandproposals/BMS/index.htm

Electronic access to information: http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Aboutus/Procurementandproposals/BMS/index.htm

Electronic submission of tenders and requests to participate: http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Aboutus/Procurementandproposals/BMS/index.htm

Further information can be obtained from: The above mentioned contact point(s)

Specifications and additional documents (including documents for competitive dialogue and a dynamic purchasing system) can be obtained from: The above mentioned contact point(s)

Tenders or requests to participate must be sent to: The above mentioned contact point(s)

I.2)Type of the contracting authority

Ministry or any other national or federal authority, including their regional or local sub-divisions

I.3)Main activity

Health

I.4)Contract award on behalf of other contracting authorities

The contracting authority is purchasing on behalf of other contracting authorities: yes

Department of Health’s Arms Length Bodies
See VI.3 Additional Information
UNITED KINGDOM

Health Service Bodies identified under Section 9 of the NHS Act 2006 (as amended)
See VI.3 Additional Information
UNITED KINGDOM

Any other organisations or bodies providing NHS Funded services
See VI.3 Additional Information
UNITED KINGDOM

Monitor Regulator created under section 31 of the NHS Act 2006
4 Matthew Parker Street
SW1H 9NL London
UNITED KINGDOM

NHS Commissioning Board Special Health Authority (established October 2011)
1st Floor, Quarry House, Quarry Hill
LS2 7UE Leeds
UNITED KINGDOM

Section II: Object of the contract

II.1)Description

II.1.1)Title attributed to the contract by the contracting authority:

Patient Questionnaire Framework.

II.1.2)Type of contract and location of works, place of delivery or of performance

Services
Service category No 10: Market research and public opinion polling services
NUTS code UK

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
maximum number of participants to the framework agreement envisaged: 5
Duration of the framework agreementDuration in months: 48
Estimated total value of purchases for the entire duration of the framework agreement

Estimated value excluding VAT:
Range: between 25 000 000,00 and 60 000 000,00 GBP

II.1.5)Short description of the contract or purchase(s)

It is intended to create a multi-supplier framework agreement for call off services to support the administration, collection and conversion of NHS patient questionnaires into data. The framework will run for four years and will be utilised by the Department of Health, its Arms Length Bodies (ALBs), any Health Service bodies as defined by S9 of the NHS Act 2006 (as amended) and any other organisations or bodies providing NHS-funded services to patients within England.
The DH envisages two Lots to be called off under this framework:
Lot 1: Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) – a means of collecting information on the clinical quality of care delivered to NHS patients as perceived by the patients themselves. The collection of these data will fill a gap in the set of information available on the care delivered to NHS-funded patients and complement existing information on the clinical quality of care and on patient experience. PROMs comprise repeated surveying of patients and are administered pre-operatively (the “Q1” questionnaire) and post-operatively (the “Q2” questionnaire) within defined intervals and to preset standards for their administration.
Lot 2: Other Patient Questionnaires – comprise any Questionnaire instrument administered to patients pre- or post-operatively, using any sampling (or census) methodology as specified by the framework user. Other patient Questionnaires will be similar in question format and length to the PROMs Questionnaires. These may be just one part of the PROMs survey which may include either a Q1, Q2 or both.
Potential suppliers must be able to demonstrate that they have the capacity and experience of providing a flexible, quality service which meets the general requirements, and will be capable of meeting anticipated changes in demand during the operating period of the framework agreement. The Department will encourage SME’s to collaborate or submit responses to this contract notice and PQQ.
The framework will enable framework users to call-off services to support the collection and reporting of data through the administration of patient questionnaires to patients in receipt of NHS-funded care. The intention is for the collection of these questionnaires to be expanded to an increasing number of NHS funded patients and there is expected to be an increase in patient numbers within scope over the lifetime of the Framework Agreement.
The Contracting Authority reserves the right to discontinue the tendering process at any time and not award the contract.
Supplier Briefing Day (for urgent attention).
The Authority intends to hold a supplier briefing day on either the 13th or 14th of December 2011 to give an overview of the PQF procurement and the key requirements for potential suppliers, as detailed in the PQQ documentation. This event will be held in London (it is intended that the venue will be confirmed by 9th December 2011).
If you are interested in attending this event please respond via the BMS messaging system by Friday the 9th of December 2011. Please do not formally express an interest at this stage, as this function within BMS is for the submission of PQQ responses.

II.1.6)Common procurement vocabulary (CPV)

79310000, 79320000, 79311000, 79311100, 79311200, 79311210, 79311300, 79313000, 79315000, 79314000, 79330000, 85148000, 79342310, 72316000, 72317000, 72312000, 72312100, 79342311

II.1.7)Information about Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)

The contract is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA): yes

II.1.8)Lots

This contract is divided into lots: yes
Tenders may be submitted for all lots

II.1.9)Information about variants

Variants will be accepted: no

II.2)Quantity or scope of the contract

II.2.1)Total quantity or scope:

Estimated value excluding VAT:
Range: between 25 000 000,00 and 60 000 000,00 GBP

II.2.2)Information about options

Options: no

II.2.3)Information about renewals

This contract is subject to renewal: no

II.3)Duration of the contract or time limit for completion

Duration in months: 48 (from the award of the contract)

Information about lots

Lot No: 1 Lot title: Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs)

1)Short description

Patient Reported Outcome Measures (“PROMs”).
(a) Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs), is the primary intended use of this framework agreement.
(b) PROMs is a means of collecting information on the clinical quality of care delivered to NHS patients as perceived by the patients themselves. The collection of these data will fill a gap in the set of information available on the care delivered to NHS funded patients and complement existing information on the clinical quality of care and on patient experience.
(c) PROMs comprise repeated surveying of patients and are administered pre-operatively (the “Q1” questionnaire) and post-operatively (the “Q2” questionnaire) within defined intervals and to preset standards for their administration.
(d) It is envisaged that the requirements for this would be set out by the DH in guidance (the Guidance) on PROMs which framework users would be expected to comply with. The Guidance will be amended from time to time by the DH to set out any new requirements in respect of PROMs. Any new requirements as set out in the Guidance would be expected to come into force from the start of the next Financial Year, provided that at least 3 months notice has been given, or the subsequent Financial Year, if at least 3 months notice hasn’t been given to framework users.
(e) Framework users may choose to use the Patient Questionnaire Framework for ancilliary services associated with the Lot 1 services. These could include analysis of response rates and presentation and management reporting of surveying performance. Where ancilliary related services are required these would be set out in the call offs. Ancilliary services will not include questionnaire development, clinical analysis or Other Patient Questionnaires as defined in Lot 2.
(f) The volumes for the 4 procedures published for the 2009/10 PROMs in total were:
239 000 eligible patients,
158 000 Q1s completed,
121 000 Q2s returned http://www.hesonline.nhs.uk/Ease/servlet/ContentServer?siteID=1937&categoryID=1583.

2)Common procurement vocabulary (CPV)

79310000, 79320000, 79311000, 79311100, 79311200, 79311210, 79311300, 79313000, 79315000, 79314000, 79330000, 85148000, 79342310, 72316000, 72317000, 72312000, 72312100

3)Quantity or scope

Estimated value excluding VAT:
Range: between 15 000 000,00 and 40 000 000,00 GBP

4)Indication about different date for duration of contract or starting/completion

5)Additional information about lots

See PQQ for further information.

Lot No: 2 Lot title: Other Patient Questionnaires

1)Short description

(a) Framework users may also use the Patient Questionnaire Framework for Patient Questionnaires other than PROMs, as outlined above. Other Patient Questionnaires will comprise any Questionnaire instruments administered to patients pre or post-operatively, using any sampling (or census) methodology as specified by the framework users. Other Patient Questionnaires will be in broadly the same format as the PROMs Questionnaire in terms of the types of questions and format required.
(b) The Other Patient Questionnaires Lot will enable Providers to use the Patient Questionnaire Framework for Patient Questionnaires other than PROMs as outlined in Lot 1.
(c) The content of the questionnaire will be provided by the framework user at the call-off stage. This will be in a format that can be printed by the Supplier and used for the Survey.
(d) This Other Patient Questionnaires Lot is differentiated from the PROMs Lot (Lot 1) to permit framework user flexibility to use the framework beyond the PROMs specification. The scope and specification for Other Patient Questionnaires are unknown at this point. Therefore no description or specification is provided in this document. It is envisaged that these will be similar in question format and length to the PROMs questionnaires.
The Other Patient Questionnaire Lot could be employed in certain circumstances to facilitate the collection of additional PROMs questionnaires to patients to different timelines. For example, a second post-operative questionnaire (“Q3”) could be administered to patients who have already completed a Q1 and a Q2 using the Other Patient Questionnaires element of the Framework agreement.
The requirements of the Other Patient Questionnaires Lot, if called off, would be set out in the mini-competition specification and may be locally specified services as required by a specific framework user or groups of framework users or, like PROMs, be required of all framework users across the country.

2)Common procurement vocabulary (CPV)

79310000, 79320000, 79311000, 79311100, 79311200, 79311210, 79311300, 79313000, 79315000, 79314000, 79330000, 85148000, 79342310, 72316000, 72317000, 72312000, 72312100

3)Quantity or scope

Estimated value excluding VAT:
Range: between 10 000 000,00 and 20 000 000,00 GBP

4)Indication about different date for duration of contract or starting/completion

5)Additional information about lots

Please see PQQ for further information.

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 guarantees may be required in certain circumstances. Details will be given within the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire.

III.1.2)Main financing conditions and payment arrangements and/or reference to the relevant provisions governing them:

Details will be given within the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire.

III.1.3)Legal form to be taken by the group of economic operators to whom the contract is to be awarded:

Economic operators shall form and be a single legal entity.

III.1.4)Other particular conditions

The performance of the contract is subject to particular conditions: no

III.2)Conditions for participation

III.2.1)Personal situation of economic operators, including requirements relating to enrolment on professional or trade registers

III.2.2)Economic and financial ability

Information and formalities necessary for evaluating if the requirements are met: Please refer to PQQ document.
Minimum level(s) of standards possibly required: Please refer to PQQ document.

III.2.3)Technical capacity

Information and formalities necessary for evaluating if the requirements are met:
Please refer to PQQ document.
Minimum level(s) of standards possibly required:
Please refer to PQQ document.

III.2.4)Information about reserved contracts

III.3)Conditions specific to services contracts

III.3.1)Information about a particular profession

Execution of the service is reserved to a particular profession: no

III.3.2)Staff responsible for the execution of the service

Legal persons should indicate the names and professional qualifications of the staff responsible for the execution of the service: no

Section IV: Procedure

IV.1)Type of procedure

IV.1.1)Type of procedure

Restricted

IV.1.2)Limitations on the number of operators who will be invited to tender or to participate

Envisaged minimum number 5: and maximum number 8

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

An electronic auction will be used: no

IV.3)Administrative information

IV.3.1)File reference number attributed by the contracting authority:

EOI 58306 and PZE/003/126

IV.3.2)Previous publication(s) concerning the same contract

Prior information notice

Notice number in the OJEU: 2011/S 720-134537 of 27.9.2011

IV.3.3)Conditions for obtaining specifications and additional documents or descriptive document

Payable documents: no

IV.3.4)Time limit for receipt of tenders or requests to participate

23.1.2012 – 12:00

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

English.

IV.3.7)Minimum time frame during which the tenderer must maintain the tender

IV.3.8)Conditions for opening tenders

Section VI: Complementary information

VI.1)Information about recurrence

This is a recurrent procurement: no

VI.2)Information about European Union funds

The contract is related to a project and/or programme financed by European Union funds: no

VI.3)Additional information

The Department of Health, as the Contracting Authority, is establishing this Framework Agreement for the benefit of the Department of Health, its Arms Length Bodies (ALBs), Health Service bodies identified under section 9 of the NHS Act 2006 (as amended) and any other organisations or bodies providing NHS-funded services. The.
Department of Health reserves the right to discontinue the tendering process and not to award the contract.
The Contracting Authority wishes to establish this Framework Agreement for use by the following UK public sector bodies (and any future successors to these organisations):
Ministry or any other national or federal authority or their successors, including their regional or local sub-divisions, specifically referring to:
Department of Health.
Health and Social Care Information Centre.
Monitor Regulator created under section 31 of the NHS Act 2006.
NHS Commissioning Board Special Health Authority (established October 2011) and other Department of Health Arms Length Bodies (ALBs) and any NHS body as defined in S9 of the NHS Act
2006, or any other body providing NHS services.
Arms Length Bodies:
NHS Blood and Transplant.
Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.
Care Quality Commission.
Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority.
Human Tissue Authority.
NHS Business Services Authority.
NHS Litigation Authority.
For any body providing NHS funded services please refer to the following website which provides a list of all NHS providers. Only Connecting for Health registered organisations are allowed to be represented on this site. http://www.nhs.uk/servicedirectories/Pages/ServiceSearch.aspx.Transparency:
Potential suppliers should note that, in accordance with Government’s policies on transparency, DH intends to publish the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ), the Invitation to Tender (ITT) document, and the text of any Framework Agreement/Contract awarded, subject to possible redactions at the discretion of DH. The terms of the proposed Framework Agreement will also permit a public sector contracting authority, awaiting a contract under this Framework Agreement, to publish the text of that contract, subject to possible redactions at the discretion of the contracting authority. Further information on transparency can be found at: http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/ content/transparency-overview.

Accessing the PQQ.
Note: the following link will take you to the guidance documentation for using the Department’s BMS system (etendering portal). http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Aboutus/Procurementandproposals/BMS/index.htm.

Instructions for/Conditions of Participation.
All participants must complete a Pre Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) which covers Economic and Financial capacity and Technical capacity.
This procurement exercise will be conducted on the DH eTendering portal at http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Aboutus/Procurementandproposals/BMS/index.htm.

We call this system BMS (Business Management System).
Candidates wishing to be considered for this contract must register their Expression of Interest and download and complete an PQQ through the DH eTendering portal (BMS).
Registration is a simple one-step process;
The supplier must register as a company/organisation; then each employee who may undertake a tendering exercise must then register as an individual.
Once this stage is completed, it is then possible to register expression of interest for this tender.
Note: Standard BMS functionality will only acknowledge one recipient per supplier for each individual tender.
If you require the tender to be seen by multiple users we suggest using a centralised e-mail address [dhtenders@example.com].

Log on instructions are as follows:
Stage 1 – New suppliers.
Those who have not previously contracted with DH will first need to ensure that their company details are registered in the system.
a) Go to the link above
b) Click on ‘New Supplier’
c) Complete and send the details in the automated e-mail that appears
d) Within 3 working days, you will receive an e-mail with your login information; a unique username and password.
Note: Standard BMS functionality requires the registered e-mail address to function as individual’s username.
Post Registration.
Once registered, candidates must express interest as follows.
a) go to the link above,
b) select ‘login into e-tendering system’,
c) select sourcing home page and enter expression of interest (pqq) number 58306 in search field provided,
d) select radio button and click on quick link to express interest, review documentation and upload your response,
e) you must then publish your reply using the publish button.
For any support in submitting your PQQ, please contact the eTendering Help-desk at +44 1132545777.
This helpdesk is available 9:00am to 4:00pm, Monday to Friday (except Bank Holidays).
Please Note: Registration on the DH secure portal is not entering onto a preferred supplier list. Registration is solely to be able to interact with the Department electronically.

VI.4)Procedures for appeal

VI.4.1)Body responsible for appeal procedures

The High Court of Justice of England and Wales
Strand
WC2A 2LL London
UNITED KINGDOM
Telephone: +44 2079476336
Fax: +44 2079476807

VI.4.2)Lodging of appeals

Precise information on deadline(s) for lodging appeals: In accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations (as amended) the Department will notify tenderers, by electronic means, or by facismile, of the standstill period before which any contract(s) will be entered into. This standstill shall not end before at least midnight at the end of the next working day. Where, exceptionally, non-electronic means of communication is used, the different timescales are set out in the Regulations shall apply. If they consider they have sufficient grounds to do so, they can suspend the award within this period, by lodging a claim form at the High Court (and following the various other formalities required by the Regulations and the rules of Court for service).

VI.4.3)Service from which information about the lodging of appeals may be obtained

VI.5)Date of dispatch of this notice:7.12.2011