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AwardedFind a Tender · award

Core Molecular Testing

Buyer: Lothian Health Board →

BuyerLothian Health Board
StatusAwarded
DeadlineNot published
ValueValue not published
Published13 Apr 2026

What is being bought

Provision of the Managed Laboratory Service for NHS Lothian for its core molecular testing requirement.

Delivery location

UKM75

Categories

Laboratory services 71900000Laboratory services 71900000

Lot details

Lot 1

Lothian Health Board (more commonly known as NHS Lothian) requires a managed service solution for its core molecular testing capacity for a contract period of 3 years. The Supplier will assume responsibility for the guaranteed availability of the managed service solution through the provision and management including maintenance.

What is included

ItemCategoryQuantity
1Laboratory servicesNot published

Comparable-procurement analytics

Benchmarked against retained Find a Tender procedures with CPV division 71. The category anchor is Laboratory services (71900000); this is a deliberately broad market comparator. The comparison is shown at several levels rather than pretending one company or region is always the best benchmark.

Comparison setProceduresReported bids per procedureNamed award suppliersPrice evidence
Market: CPV division 716,2154 median · 32.2 average (2,195 of 6,215 with a bid count)4.2 average (2,436 of 6,215 with named award suppliers)Not published
Same buyer1Not publishedNot publishedNot published
Delivery region: UKM75584 median · 6.1 average (33 of 58 with a bid count)2.2 average (35 of 58 with named award suppliers)Not published

“Reported bids” is an official aggregate, sometimes reported per lot; it is the closest available competition measure. “Named award suppliers” are winners, not all applicants.

Price-outcome signal

Not enough comparable procedures currently publish both a GBP tender value and a usable lowest-valid-bid value to calculate a responsible price-reduction benchmark. Tenderline deliberately does not infer a saving from named award suppliers or from missing award values.

Procurement strategy & market signals

Framework agreementNot published
Dynamic purchasing systemNot published
Competitive procurementNot published
Recurring requirementNot published
Procurement method rationaleThis contract is being awarded under the Direct Award procedure under Lot 1 – Clinical Managed Services of the SBS Framework for Clinical Managed Services including Managed Maintenance Services SBS10251. National Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) replacement program is currently being rolled out across the Boards in Scotland and NHS Lothian have been recently given a go live date which coincides with the expiry of the current Managed Service Contract (MSC) for molecular testing. LIMS implementation delay would have a knock-on effect on other Boards hence it is imperative NHS Lothian maintains the timeline. A potential change of supplier due to competition would introduce significant clinical risk at the operational and programme level in terms of potential dual interface builds/manual transcription, increased potential for misidentification or data integrity errors as well as diversion of essential specialist resource away from the LIMS programme at a time when stability is critical. Most importantly, a change of supplier would put a disproportionate risk to patient care. To reduce clinical risk during unavoidable LIMS implementation a direct award of core molecular testing MSC is recommended under Procurement Act 2023 Schedule 5 Paragraph 7: “(b) the difference or incompatibility would result in disproportionate technical difficulties in operation or maintenance.”
Rationale classificationsThe procurement falls outside the scope of application of the directive
Special regimeNot published
Covered byGPA
Submission policyNot published
Selection criteriaNot published
Risk detailsNot published

Planning & early market engagement

BudgetNot published
No-engagement rationaleNot published
Planning documents0
Planning milestones0

No planning milestones published.

Related procurements

No linked framework, prior procurement or reprocurement published.

Awards

Contracts

033429-2026-1

Statusactive
Value£3,000,000

Documents & submission route

No documents are published in the current source record.

Source data inventory

Diagnostic view. “Not published” means this current release does not provide a value.

OCIDocds-h6vhtk-02bef1
Latest release ID033429-2026
Latest release timestampMon Apr 13 2026 15:33:35 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
Sourcefind-a-tender
Official notice URLNot published
Tender statuscomplete
Procurement methodlimited
Procurement method detailsAward procedure without prior publication of a call for competition
Main procurement categoryservices
Above thresholdNot published
Legal basis32014L0024
Tender period: startNot published
Tender period: endNot published
Expression of interest deadlineNot published
Enquiry deadlineNot published
Award period: startNot published
Award period: endNot published
Submission method detailsNot published
Submission languagesNot published
Electronic catalogue policyNot published
Total tender valueNot published
Tender lots in source1
Tender items in source1
Tender documents in source0
Awards in latest release1
Contracts in latest release1
Parties in latest release3

Notice history

DateEventReference
13 Apr 2026award, contract033429-2026
7 Oct 2025award, contract062829-2025

All source data

Unmodified official OCDS data retained by Tenderline for this procurement process.

Complete current OCDS release JSON
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Complete JSON history (2 releases)
13 Apr 2026 · 033429-2026 · award, contract
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7 Oct 2025 · 062829-2025 · award, contract
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