HPV Primary Cervical Screening Laboratory Service in the South West

NHS England South West are looking to award a new contract for the provision of a HPV Primary Cervical Screening Laboratory Service to the existing provider, North Bristol NHS Trust. The cervical screening laboratory is an essential component of the cervical screening programme pathway. The primary purpose of the cervical laboratory is to: • receive and process samples taken for the purposes of the cervical screening programme in primary care and any other relevant setting across their designated geographies. • send the results to the Cervical Screening Administration Service. • refer women who require treatment to their local colposcopy clinic. In addition, the laboratory has to: • arrange the distribution of sample taking kits to all sample taking locations. • maintain a database of sample takers, ensuring their training is up to date. • distribute sample bags and arrange for samples to be transported to the laboratory - which may be using its own transport service, or by making use of local transport and 'spoke' arrangements in laboratories on multiple other acute sites across large geographical areas. • ensure sample takers have a means of requesting tests electronically - typically a separate system from other 'order comms'. • put in place arrangements to access histology results from associated colposcopy activity. • support multi-disciplinary team meetings in each of the associated gynaecology services in order to arrive at a diagnosis/develop treatment plans. • support invasive cancer audits in each of the associated gynaecology services. • participation in local programme boards to support continuous quality improvement across the whole pathway. • support the training of cyto-histopathologist and other specialist staff across the whole network. This requires the laboratory to be at the heart of a complex network of services and relationships, with data sharing and logistics in place across multiple ICB geographies. The existing contract for the provision of a HPV Primary Cervical Screening Laboratory services in the South West is due to expire on 30th June 2026 and NHS England South West have proposed that a new contract should replace the existing contract at the end of its term. All requirements outlined in Regulation 6(5) of the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023 have been met, including not breaching the considerable change threshold, and therefore direct award process C has been deemed the appropriate provider selection process. After conducting an assessment, taking into account the key criteria and applying the basic selection criteria, NHS England South West is content that the existing provider is satisfying the original contract and will likely satisfy the proposed contract to a sufficient standard. The service is anticipated to commence on the 1st July 2026 for an initial contract duration of 21 months, with an option to extend for a further 1 year. The total contract lifecycle value is £13,905,000 over the initial 21 months, and a maximum possible contract value of £19,677,000 including extensions. The Commissioner will be contracting for the services using the Full-Length NHS Standard Contract. This notice serves as an intention to award the contract to the existing provider under Direct Award Process C of the Provider Selection Regime (PSR). During the life of the proposed new contract, NHS England South West intend to consider a longer term commissioning strategy for the service. This procurement has been carried out by NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit (SCW) on behalf of the Commissioners.