Official UK procurement notice
Drug Knowledge Base for Electronic Health and Care Record
Authority: Somerset NHS Foundation Trust (Central government)·Consortium: 4 public authorities
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionThe Trust intends to enter into a contract with First Data Bank (FDB) UK for the provision of FDB Multilex. Multilex is FDB UK's proprietary software which provides medicines optimisation and clinical decision support for medicines management for the purposes of embedding within the Healthset Programme Epic electronic health and care record.
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedLot #1Awarded
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Published awards, contracts and bid statistics, not a forecast| Awarded to | Value | Date | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| First DataBank UK Ltd17 Nov 2026 – 31 Mar 2036 | £2,556,297 | 4 Nov 2026standstill to 16 Nov 2026 | Standstill |
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Procedure method
- Direct award
- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Notice status
- Awarded without competition
- Procurement threshold
- Unspecified in notice
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Direct award (no call for competition)
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 5 Nov 2026, 16:33 GMT
- Last source update
- 5 Nov 2026, 16:45 GMT
- Authority reference
IT457- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-105425- Latest notice
- Contract award notice (UK6)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-07b5c1Find a Tender
- Why no open competition
- Single Suppliers Technical Reasons
- Published justification
FDB Multilex is integrated with Epic and provides the drug knowledge database functionality required for delivery of the Healthset Epic Electronic Health Record.
Following market engagement, the contracting authority has concluded that alternative solutions cannot provide the required integration within the programme's implementation timescales.
The contracting authority therefore consider that there is an absence of competition for technical reasons and that there are no reasonable alternatives capable of meeting the requirement within the technical and implementation constraints of the programme.
Accordingly, the direct award justification in paragraph 6 of Schedule 5 to the Procurement Act 2023 applies.
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
5 Nov 2026 → 16 Nov 2026 · 2 dates- Notice published35h ago5 Nov 2026, 16:45 GMT
- Today7 Nov 2026
- Standstill endsin 9 days16 Nov 2026, 23:59 GMT
Notice history
3 events · 2 releases on Find a Tender · since 5 Nov 2026- Transparency notice published5 Nov 2026, 16:33 GMTUK5
- Contract award notice published5 Nov 2026, 16:45 GMTUK6
- Contract signature expected17 Nov 2026, 23:59 GMTscheduled
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
4 public bodies on the noticeConsortium members and other public bodies
- DORSET COUNTY HOSPITAL NHS FOUNDATION TRUSTContracting authorityPublic authority - central government
- DORSET HEALTHCARE UNIVERSITY NHS FOUNDATION TRUSTContracting authorityPublic authority - central government
- UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS DORSET NHS FOUNDATION TRUSTContracting authorityPublic authority - central government
Bidders & participating suppliers
1 commercial party on the notice- FIRST DATABANK UK LTDAwarded supplier
Official documents & specifications (2)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Contract award notice Contract award notice on Find a Tender
- Transparency notice Transparency notice on Find a Tender