Procurement

The NHS Suffolk and North East Essex ICB is responsible for shaping and designing most of the health and care services that local people need, then selecting the best organisations to run them. The process of specifying a service and identifying the appropriate organisation or organisations to deliver the service is called ‘procurement’.

The ICB follows strict processes to obtain best value for money whilst ensuring transparency, fairness, non-discrimination, public good, integrity, open and fair competition.

The ICB’s approach to procurement is to operate within legal and policy frameworks and to use procurement as one of the system management tools available to strengthen commissioning outcomes and drive up quality.

It can do this through:

• Ensuring providers work in an integrated fashion where this is in the best interest of patients and promotes service efficiency;
• Increasing general market capacity to promote patient choice and meet the demand requirements of our population;
• Using appropriate procurement mechanisms to facilitate improvements in choice, quality, efficiency and access and responsiveness; and
• Stimulating innovation.

On this page, you can learn more about the processes we follow when procuring services, as well as lists of recently procured services.

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Procurement policy

Please see below the NHS Suffolk and North East Essex ICB Procurement Policy.

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Procurement decision register

A register of recent procurement decisions, including details of the decision, who was involved and a summary of any conflicts of interest in relation to the decision and how this was managed.

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Finding a tender or quotation opportunity

We advertise opportunities to tender and quote via the In-tend procurement portal. This is also the portal where all tenders and quotations are administered.

Tender and quotation opportunities above £30,000 are also advertised on Contracts Finder.

You can also find high value contracts above £663,540 advertised via the UK Government’s Find a Tender tool.

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NHS Standard Contract

The NHS Standard Contract is mandated by NHS England for use by commissioners for all contracts for healthcare services other than primary care. There are specific clauses relating to providers’ responsibility to ensure patients receive a positive experience. They must also give patients and public the opportunity to have their say. We as an ICB monitor how our providers are fulfilling this obligation. This is done through regular quality and contract meetings, in which our providers produce their findings for the period.