Supply, Calibration & Maintenance of Temperature Loggers

Supply, Calibration & Maintenance of Temperature Loggers

NHSBT will process more than one million blood donations per year into various blood components within specific timelines. Once processed, these components are stored in temperature-controlled storage facilities within the organisation’s 14 sites across England before being supplied to hospitals.

Specific storage temperatures are vital to the efficacy and integrity of blood components and are always adhered to within strict regulatory requirements. These temperatures vary from -40°C to +24°C with considerably lower temperatures within NHSBT’s sample storage and research facilities from -80°C down to -196°C.

Calibrated Temperature Monitoring Devices (CTMDs) are used to fully temperature map all of NHSBT’s temperature-controlled storage areas and equipment on a routine basis according to the organisation’s detailed processes and within the Quality Management System to ensure they are all fit for purpose. This equipment includes walk in freezers, cold rooms, incubators, and temperature-controlled areas, transport containers, along with other remote storage locations storing temperature sensitive materials, from which CTMDs are managed by a central hub.

Calibration of the CTMDs is carried out on an annual basis according to the calibration points requested by NHSBT which will cover all of the temperature requirements noted above. Both calibration and maintenance services are carried out within strict turnaround times to ensure CTMDs are constantly available so that NHSBT can meet all of its temperature mapping requirements and responsibilities.

Note: This notice is only for CTMDs that have the capability for the purpose of intermittent temperature mapping of its storage facilities and equipment. NHSBT are not pursuing interest in an Environmental Monitoring System as an entity.

Therefore, NHSBT would like to take this opportunity to engage the market in advance of a procurement process for the supply, maintenance, and calibration of suitable CTMDs for the purpose of temperature mapping.

This will enable NHSBT to gain an understanding of current developments and innovation for the provision of the CTMDs and particularly the associated software programs, to determine what is available, what is compatible with NHSBT IT systems and temperature mapping processes, to establish the level of market interest ahead of planned Supplier Engagement Days where products and services can be demonstrated.

It is NHSBT's intention to engage with the market to gather detailed information about the marketplace's capabilities. The format for this will be communicated to those that respond to this PIN with supplier engagement days to take place in person at NHS Blood & Transplant - Barnsley. Please email [email protected] and include an overview of your solution which will meet the requirements in this PIN.