Official UK procurement notice
Future Pathology Managed Service
Authority: Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (Central government)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionGloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (GHFT) provides acute hospital services from two large district general hospitals, Cheltenham General Hospital (CGH) and Gloucestershire Royal Hospital (GRH). Maternity Services are also provided at Stroud Maternity Hospital.
GHFT Pathology services are critical in supporting the delivery of a high-quality, first-class clinical service that can meet the demand and needs of the acute Trust and our One Gloucestershire partners (Gloucestershire Primary care, Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust), South Worcestershire Primary care, private healthcare providers and other out of county NHS healthcare organisations. The Pathology disciplines are spread across two sites (GRH and CGH), with Haematology, Blood transfusion, and Chemical Pathology provided at both sites due to the acute clinical services at each site. Cellular Pathology services are consolidated and are based at CGH, and Immunology and Microbiology services are consolidated and are based at GRH.
Several managed service contracts are due to expire, the most significant ones in October 2026. As a minimum, replacement of the current contracts must ensure ongoing service provision, as Pathology services are a fundamental diagnostic and prognostic service that supports every aspect of patient care, where 70% to 80% of clinical decisions and 95% of chronic disease pathways are reliant upon input from Pathology. However, national and local demand for Pathology services has increased and become more complex over the last 10 years, and the ability to deliver Pathology services fit for the future, is currently constrained by the estate occupied by GHFT Pathology disciplines. Each discipline has unique estate (e.g. space, storage capacity, temperature control, layout) and workflow challenges, that need to be reconfigured to deliver the operational efficiency and lean process required in a modern-day NHS laboratory, and to provide income generating capacity through analytical suites that offer bespoke analysis to other NHS organisations, organisations carrying out research and innovation, other areas of the private sector (e.g. sports medicine, veterinarians and private patients).
GHFT Pathology disciplines:
- Cellular Pathology (includes Histopathology and Cytology)
- Chemical Pathology
- Haematology, Immunology and Blood Transfusion
- Infection Sciences (includes Microbiology, Serology and Molecular Microbiology)
- Point of Care Testing
Our proposed scope is looking to include Pathology Managed Services relating to all Pathology disciplines with the remit to cover but not limited to:
- Capital, Instruments & Devices
- Reagents, Chemicals & Consumables
- Maintenance
- IT, AI & Software Integration
- Estate upgrades
CPV: Pathology services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedLot #1PlannedRenewal
Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust buys Hospital and related services (CPV 8511), and who usually turns up
Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s published record next to the market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are left out: they draw different bid counts. Whole-market view: Hospital and related services (CPV 8511) →
How the contest usually goes
Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.
i
How often small and medium firms win.
Share of awards where the winner’s size is known.
The counts under this question show how many awards have a known supplier size.
Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.
i
How often local firms win similar work.
Winners with a registered address in the delivery region, out of awards with a known address.
Local means the winner is registered in the region where that award was delivered. The market figure counts awards delivered in South West England (authority’s region).
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered outside the region where that award was delivered.
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How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.
Middle value in days from the bid deadline to the award date, on competitions that published both.
Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.
Half of these awards have an award date within 75 days of the bid deadline.
i
How often work is awarded with no recorded rival.
Direct awards and tenders where every published lot count shows one bid.
Both shares are minimums: some awards have no bid count.
Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.
Direct awards or one recorded bid are common here. Check the route before spending time on a bid.
How many bids did past lots attract?
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How many bids past lots received.
Each colour is a bid-count range. Only competed lots with a published count are included.
Past bids do not predict this tender.
1 bid20%
2–30%
4–60%
7+80%
How did awards compare with estimates?
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Where winning prices landed against estimates.
Each colour shows awards below, close to or above the published estimate, one lot at a time.
Past prices are a guide, not a bid price.
Below estimate18%
Within ±2%50%
Above estimate32%
Assess each lot i
What past awards tell you about each lot.
See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.
No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.
i
What past awards tell you about each lot.
See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.
No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.
Open a lot for its forecast, this buyer’s previous supplier and possible competitors, from published award history, not a bid list
Lot #1CPV 8511Published estimate£324m
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How many bids this lot may attract.
The forecast uses similar past competitions. The bar shows either that forecast or past bid counts; the line below says which.
Each lot shows its own forecast based on its own category; forecasts for different lots of the same notice are not comparative. The bar shows 240 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid22%
2–338%
4–623%
7+18%
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Where the award price may land.
The forecast uses similar awards and the buyer’s estimate. The band covers the middle half of likely prices.
No comparable awards for this lot yet.
A statistical guide from past awards, not a price to bid.
Who has supplied this buyer on similar work? i
Who has done similar work for this buyer.
Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.
A past supplier may not bid again.
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Who has done similar work for this buyer.
Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.
A past supplier may not bid again.
No earlier contract of this buyer matches this lot on the published record.
Who could compete for this lot? i
Who could compete for this lot?
Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.
None is confirmed as a bidder.
i
Who could compete for this lot?
Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.
None is confirmed as a bidder.
Candidate suppliers for this notice have not been worked out yet, so this is not a verdict that nobody fits.
About this data
- Source. Official UK public procurement notices (Find a Tender), reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. New notices arrive through the day; the figures are rebuilt nightly.
- Two views, kept apart. The authority’s own track record and the wider market for the same kind of work sit side by side and are never mixed. Where the local picture is too thin, a figure widens to a broader market and says which one it used.
- Forecasts are labelled. The price forecast and its range, possible competitors and the earlier-work matches are our estimates from past awards: not published facts, not win chances and not price advice. Official notices do not say who is bidding.
- Every figure shows what it rests on. Not every notice publishes a bid count, a value or a delivery region, so each figure carries the number of records behind it, and one built on few records is marked as such. The on a figure explains it; the counting rules are in the methodology. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Procedure method
- Competitive flexible procedure
- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Procurement category
- Services
- Notice status
- Planned procurement
- Procurement threshold
- Above threshold (FTS publication)
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 10 Apr 2026, 10:56 BST
- Last source update
- 10 Apr 2026, 10:56 BST
- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-032705- Latest notice
- Pipeline notice (UK1)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Not published
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-067fbaFind a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
10 Apr 2026 → 30 Apr 2027 · 3 dates- Planning notice published199 days ago10 Apr 2026, 10:56 BST
- Tender notice expected83 days ago3 Aug 2026, 23:59 BST
- Today26 Oct 2026
- Contract startsin 186 days30 Apr 2027, 00:00 BST
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Pipeline notice published10 Apr 2026, 10:56 BSTUK1
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Pipeline notice- Awards (0)
- No award published
- Contracts (0)
- No contract published
- Bid statistics
- No aggregate bid statistics published
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Official documents & specifications (1)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Pipeline notice Pipeline notice on Find a Tender