Automated blood pressure monitor Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS)
This DPS has been designed to support NHS and social care organisations with the procurement of remote monitoring solutions for high blood pressure.
Poorly controlled high blood pressure (hypertension) puts people at high risk of other medical complications. Remote monitoring solutions can help people with high-blood pressure to safely and accurately measure their blood pressure at home.
The DPS enables quicker, easier and more informed procurement processes for NHS and other organisations. It is managed by the National Commercial and Procurement Hub (The Hub), who provide expert advice and guidance to NHS organisations. The Hub is commissioned by NHS England from South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit
DPS date and duration
January 2021 to November 2024. (One year extension option)
The DPS is a live process and suppliers can apply or withdraw throughout the DPS term.
Guidance for using the DPS
Buying solutions via the DPS
1. What is the automated blood pressure monitor DPS?
This DPS is an electronic system through which NHS and other organisations can procure blood pressure monitoring solutions that people can use at home by inviting tenders from suppliers that have been admitted to the DPS.
It is run in two stages. Firstly, all suppliers are nationally assessed against set criteria and admitted onto the DPS. NHS and social care organisations can therefore be assured suppliers on the DPS have been tested for their capability to deliver against the national specification.
The second stage of the DPS process is to run a mini competition to assess bids on price and quality criteria to award a contract. NHS or other organisations will invite all suppliers listed on the established DPS to compete for specific local contracts.
Mini competitions are mandatory, enabling more bespoke requirements to be met.
It is recommended that contracting authorities undertake their own financial status checks as part of their own due diligence, in line with their own requirements to ensure suppliers meet their own contractual requirements.
2. Support services
One of the benefits of using this DPS is access to support services from the National Commercial and Procurement Hub (the Hub), who will provide expert advice and guidance. The Hub is commissioned by NHS England from South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit.
NHS organisations can also commission the Hub to fully manage the mini competition on their behalf. For more information contact commercial.procurementhub@nhs.net
3. Who can use the DPS
All NHS and social care organisations can use the DPS.
4. Geographic coverage
Available to any NHS or other organisation in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
5. Various supplier types
A broad range of suppliers, from small to large corporate companies.
Running a mini competition
Step 1: Request access
You will need to request access to the automated blood pressure monitor DPS, including the suite of documents, in order to set up your mini competition. Requests to access the DPS should be made to the Hub by emailing commercial.procurementhub@nhs.net
Step 2: Identify needs and develop a local level specification
Make sure you have the advice of someone who will use the service or buying specialists and technical experts in order to list your ‘must-haves’, ‘wants’ and critical success factors. You will need to consider the budget available, the technical and procurement requirements of the project and the criteria on which your choice will be based. The hub is available to help guide you through this stage of the process.
When establishing your local requirements, it is essential to define what it is you want to achieve. Without this key information it is difficult for you to define (and others to understand) what you want the key outcomes to be.
It is important to develop an overall statement of requirements by engaging key stakeholders to agree the specification. When developing your specification, it is recommended that national supporting guidance is considered.
Step 3: Finalise specification
Your final, detailed specification will describe your exact requirements to enable suppliers to accurately submit bids. An effective specification provides an unambiguous picture of what is required. It ensures consistency and uniformity and enables quality to be measured against the agreed (and specified) criteria.
Step 4: Complete mini competition documentation
When you are ready to send your requirements to the approved suppliers, you will need to complete the competition documentation, which comprises:
- ITT (Invitation to tender)
- Declarations
- Requirements specification
- Financial model template
- Draft contract
The template documentation can be supplied by the Hub on request: commercial.procurementhub@nhs.net
NHS organisations must allow suppliers time to prepare and submit their bids. By law the minimum time for bids to be returned is 10 days. You may wish to give more than 10 days where your requirement is more complex. This must be proportional to what you are asking of the suppliers and the complexity of your requirement.
You should include precise detail of your procurement timeline in the documentation to ensure suppliers are clear on their deadlines. You will also need to tell the suppliers how you will be evaluating their bids, clearly describing your evaluation model including criteria and their relative importance. The most important aspects should attract the highest weightings.
Step 5: Issue mini competition documentation to approved suppliers
You are obliged to invite all approved suppliers on the DPS to bid against your requirements. Mini competitions which are not conducted by entirely electronic means are in breach of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and the terms of use of the Automated Blood Pressure Monitor DPS.
Step 6: Evaluate
During the bid evaluation, the principles of transparency and equity apply. Good record keeping is an essential element. It is also vital that you evaluate the bid strictly in accordance with your published award criteria and keep an audit trail of evaluation and moderation processes.
Step 7: Award and contract documentation
Following evaluation, a successful bidder will be identified. The next stage is to award the contract.
Before a contract is signed it is essential that NHS and other organisations undertake a due diligence process. This is to provide assurance that the proposed solution will be deliverable by the agreed supplier or suppliers. Once the due diligence step has been completed, a call-off order form will be used to complete the process. The Hub can provide support with contract documents.
Providing feedback and debriefing to both successful and unsuccessful suppliers is necessary in order to comply with the terms of use of the DPS. Where fully managed mini competitions are undertaken by the Hub this element will be completed on behalf of NHS organisations.
Step 8: Report
It is necessary for the Hub to have a record of all contracts awarded under the DPS, to satisfy the legal obligations of the DPS, each Contracting Authority will be responsible for publishing their own award notices. Where NHS and other organisations undertake the mini competition process themselves and enter into a call-off contract, they must complete and return the data capture form, available from and to be returned to commercial.procurementhub@nhs.net. This is not required where the Hub provides the ‘fully managed’ mini competition process on behalf of the NHS organisations.
Step 9: Contract form
Contracts awarded via a mini competition are between the buying organisation and the awarded supplier. They are entered into once an order has been placed (following successful completion of a mini competition).
To ensure robustness, award contracts must be signed by a recognised legal contracting authority. Within an STP or ICS this could be a lead CCG with associate CCGs.
A template form contract is provided as part of the DPS document suite is available on request. The template contract is focused on the NHS standard terms and conditions for the provision of services (contract version). The Hub can provide support in completing the contract documentation.
Templates and documentation
The Hub is available to support NHS organisations with the mini competition process. To enhance this, a suite of template documents have been developed to support buying organisations to procure through this DPS, in a standardised way.
Requests to access the DPS (including the suite of documents) should be made to commercial.procurementhub@nhs.net