NHS Herefordshire & Worcestershire ICB Assisted Conception Services

The ICB has undertaken a Most Suitable Provider assessment process pursuant to Regulation 10 of The Heath Care Service (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023 further to the publication of a Market Engagement Notice on 14th February 2024.

Interested providers were able to express an interest via the NHS Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit Atamis e-Tendering portal (health-family.force.com/s/Welcome ↗) between 13th February 2024 and 8th March 2024. The Find a Tender Service reference was 2024/S 000-004924.

This exercise enabled the ICB to consider all providers they thought would be able to deliver the service to the relevant population, and then to proceed to identify and select the most suitable providers from this group.

The ICB conducted a Pass/Fail assessment process against basic selection criteria and key criteria of any providers who expressed their interest.

All basic selection criteria in the MSP assessment were fully based on the Crown Commercial Service Standard Selection Questionnaire. All other questions in the MSP assessment covered the five key criteria pursuant to Regulation 5 of the Provider Selection Regime Regulations. This Regulation states that five key criteria must be considered by the commissioning organisation in a fair way across providers when applying an MSP assessment. These criteria are:

• Quality and Innovation
• Value
• Integration, Collaboration and Service Sustainability
• Improving Access, Reducing Health Inequalities and Facilitating Choice
• Social Value

This Notice is an intention to award four contracts to four provider organisations of Assisted Conception Services, who each met all the criteria under the Most Suitable Provider assessment.

Each contract period is for 4 years, with the option to extend for a further 2 years, subject to mutual agreement.

The total value is approximately £2,298,414.00 for the lifetime of the proposed contracts including the optional extension periods. The indicative value per financial year for the lifetime of the contract including the optional extension periods is £383,069.

Please note that the value shown, for each provider, at Section V Paragraph 2.4 below is an indicative value only, i.e., for the purposes of completing this Notice. Patients have the option to select their choice of provider for the Assisted Conception Services in scope, therefore, it is not possible to state in this Notice the exact proposed total value of each contract for each of the four Most Suitable Providers. The figure shown, for each provider, at Section V Paragraph 2.4 is indicative only.

Assisted Conception is when a person or couple get pregnant (conceive) with the assistance of medical intervention (treatment). The Assisted Conception services include:

• In vitro fertilisation (IVF)
• IVF with intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI)
• Intrauterine insemination (IUI)

The different treatments available can involve the use of donated eggs and sperm. Additional information: Award of a contract without prior publication of a call for competition.