Official UK procurement notice
National Air Ambulance Service for The Scottish Ambulance Service
Authority: Scottish Ambulance Service (NHS & healthcare)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionThe procurement of a national air ambulance service for the Scottish Ambulance Service.
- Recurrence: Contract is for 7 years with a possible 3 years extension.
CPV: Aerial and related services · Air-rescue services · Aircraft and spacecraft · Fixed-wing aircrafts · Helicopters, aeroplanes, spacecraft and other powered aircraft · Hire of fixed-wing aircraft with crew · Hire of helicopters with crew · Piloted aircraft · Rescue and emergency equipment · Search and rescue helicopters · Special-purpose aircraft · Unmanned aerial vehicles
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedLot #1The Scottish Ambulance Service ("the Service") provides a national air ambulance…Renewal
The Scottish Ambulance Service ("the Service") provides a national air ambulance service to all of Scotland and its islands. This is the only wholly publicly funded air ambulance service in the United Kingdom and provides an invaluable resource to the public of Scotland.
Scotland presents a challenging environment for air ambulance operators. Factors to be considered include:
- Varied terrain.
- Potentially severe weather conditions.
- Longer hours of darkness in winter.
- Limited and varying airport capabilities and hours of operation.
- Future island transport provisions including ferries and airport developments or changes.
- Recognition of the Government targets on sustainability and carbon neutral.
- National planning of specialist services for example thrombectomy and major trauma.
The aims of the procurement are to deliver an innovative, sustainable, resilient and value for money air ambulance service that can respond to changes in service delivery requirements whilst maintaining a high quality care and experience for the patients and public of Scotland.
The future contract is expected to encompass the following elements including but not limited to:
1.The aircraft fleet must be capable of reaching all of Scotland’s population. The rotary aircraft must have 24/7 Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) capability and all aircraft must act as a suitable transport platform for the personnel and equipment associated with our adult, paediatric and neonatal critical care transport and retrieval teams (ScotSTAR).
- Provision of aircraft hangarage in order to ensure 24/7 availability of aircraft during inclement weather.
- Provision of maintenance & backup. All planned and reactive maintenance must be carried out in Scotland. Backup aircraft to be provided to the same specification as core aircraft.
- Provision of 24/7 engineering support.
- Provision of adequate base facilities for clinical staff. e.g., provision of Ops Room space, lockers and parking facilities etc., In addition, meeting room/training room and overnight accommodation (where necessary) for on-call clinical staff.
- Provision of air crew member training (e.g., Technical Crew Member training for HEMS).
7.Provision of compliant radio communications system. The aircraft must be capable of compliance with the current Airwave communications system (if this is still in operation at contract commencement), and also compliance with the future Emergency Services Network (ESN) system
- Provision of on-going monitoring of service provision by way of regular contract monitoring meetings.
- The Service will provide the clinical staffing. The aircraft, flight crew (pilots), estate & facilities and engineering support will be provided by the successful contractor(s) on a managed service basis.
- The successful contractor(s) shall support a variety of air ambulance missions; ranging from hospital discharges through to pre-hospital helicopter emergency calls and critical care transfers.
What it takes to wini
How this buyer will score bids.
The evaluation criteria and weights exactly as published on the notice, grouped by family (price, quality, social value and so on).
Evaluation split and conditions of participation as published; the tender pack may add morei
How this buyer will score bids.
The evaluation criteria and weights exactly as published on the notice, grouped by family (price, quality, social value and so on).
Published sub-criteria (2)
- Quality Ratio: 70%
- Cost Ratio: 30%
Published award criteria (2)
- Quality Ratio: 70%
- Cost Ratio: 30%
- Suitability
In order to be able to provide the Services, the bidder(s) must have, or must obtain an Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC) which is issued and regulated by the UK CAA prior to the award of the contract. In the case of a “foreign” entity, that entity must be acceptable to the UK CAA. The issue of an AOC is based on the holder’s Operations Manual which contains details of all of the operating criteria necessary to undertake safe commercial flying operations and part of the AOC documentation will be an Operations Specification (Ops Spec) which includes details of approved aircraft types and the approved operations. In the case of Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) a Specific Approval to do this will be Included with the AOC documentation as well as other relevant permissions. Bidder(s) must provide AOC documentation showing approval for all HEMS/Air Ambulance operations.
- Successive reduction
- Candidates will be reduced successively across stages
- Price carries 30 of 100 points: a 10% discount moves about 3 points. The method statement decides this lot, not the discount.
Price arithmetic assumes straight proportional scoring; the tender pack may use another formula.
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record · publisher note attached- Procedure method
- Competitive dialogue
- Legal basis
- CELEX · 32014L0024 Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (Directive 2014/24/EU)
- Procurement category
- Services
- Notice status
- Closed
- Procurement threshold
- Unspecified in notice
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Yes (GPA)
- Recurring procurement
- Yes · Contract is for 7 years with a possible 3 years extension.
- First published
- 19 Jul 2022, 08:40 BST
- Last source update
- 19 Jul 2022, 08:40 BST
- Authority reference
SAS/2022/639- FTS notice number
2022/S 000-019611- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-035343Find a Tender
- Electronic trading
- e-invoicing allowed · electronic payment
Publisher note: NOTE: To register your interest in this notice and obtain any additional information please visit the Public Contracts Scotland Web Site at https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/Search/Search_Switch.aspx?ID=700400. The buyer has indicated that it will accept electronic responses to this notice via the Postbox facility. A user guide is available at https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/sitehelp/help_guides.aspx. Suppliers are advised to allow adequate time for uploading documents and to dispatch the electronic response well in advance of the closing time to avoid any last minute problems. The Contracting Authority does not intend to include a sub-contract clause as part of community benefits (as per Section 25 of the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014) in this contract for the following reason: Authority will explore other forms of community benefits and will not mandate subcontracting Per the regs, the authority will explore CB's via "which is otherwise intended to improve the economic, social or environmental wellbeing of the authority's area in a way additional to the main purpose of the contract in which the requirement is included." Community benefits are included in this requirement. For more information see: https://www.gov.scot/policies/public-sector-procurement/community-benefits-in-procurement/ A summary of the expected community benefits has been provided as follows: The specific nature of the community benefits included in this requirement will be detailed in the stage 2 - Invitation to Take Part in Dialogue Document (SC Ref:700400)
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- 17 Aug 2022, 12:00 BST
- Submission channel
- {"electronicSubmission"}
- Accepted languages
- en
Timeline
19 Jul 2022 → 26 Sept 2022 · 3 dates- Notice published19 Jul 2022, 08:40 BST
- Submission deadline17 Aug 2022, 12:00 BST
- Invitations to tender expected26 Sept 2022, 00:00 BST
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Dispute resolution & review bodies
- Edinburgh Sheriff CourtReview body
Official documents & specifications (2)
Official links; attachments are not copiedTender pack and attachments
- Economic and financial selection criteria
- Technical selection criteria