4 Tips for Winning A Tender for Medicine Supply

Learn how to respond to a tender for medicine supply!

A tender for medicine supply is one of, if not the most, important aspects of healthcare procurement. Within the UK, it accounts for a large number of healthcare tenders. This ultimately translates to lucrative tendering opportunities for companies with the initiative.

That’s where we come in. In this blog, we’ll walk you through sourcing and winning a medicine tender.

Where can I find medicine supply tenders?

When you’re endlessly trawling through tender databases and need an intuitive solution look no further than…

Healthcare Tenders

By removing unreliable CPV codes, we’ve created a portal that infinitely smoothens the process of searching for tenders.

Our Healthcare Tenders portal uploads a wide range of tenders in the healthcare industry, across the UK. This helps to streamline the process, saving you time and resources.

What is Healthcare Tenders?

Healthcare Tenders is a time-saving tool. Our Opportunity Trackers manually search hundreds of sites for the latest healthcare leads and opportunities. They upload a whole range of opportunities such as single-provider contracts, NHS frameworks and DPSs. Once they are uploaded to our portal, you can easily filter the results by budget, keyword, location and more.

Below are previous medical supply tenders sourced on our portal:

Generic Medicines Transition Tender

The Common Services Agency (more commonly known as NHS National Services Scotland) (“NSS”) – Scotland – Budget: £7,343,989

Supply of Oral Transmucosal Fentanyl Citrate OTFC

Ministry of Defence – South West – Budget: £2,000,000

Project 28735 – Manufacture and Supply of Avian and Bovine PPD Tuberculin

Defra Network eTendering Portal – South East – Budget: £23,000,000

NHS Framework for the North of England, Branded Medicines – Tranche B, Annual Tranche and Insulin Aspart Biosimilar (Trurapi)

NHS England – North West – Budget: £431,955,441

NHS Framework Agreement for the supply of Direct Oral Anticoagulants (DOACs) for the NHS in England

NHS England – London – Budget: £3,185,000,000

Want to save even more time?

Upgrading to Discover Elite will ensure you never miss a tendering opportunity, even when you’re busy!

The Ultimate Time-Saving Tool offers your business:

  • An annual subscription to a maximum of two Discover portals of your choice.
  • Up to five bid breakdowns per month to help you make your bid or no-bid decisions.
  • Weekly phone calls with your Account Manager to discuss viable healthcare leads and tendering opportunities.
  • Award and pre-market engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
  • Public and private buyer portal management including registering, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid strategy.

Contact us for more information.

4 tips for winning a tender for medicine supply

Proofreading – This should be a priority for your Bid Team (even if it’s only one person). Making sure that your work not only flows well but is grammatically correct is vital for success. Sparing time for drafts is an excellent method for catching stray errors. Send these drafts to colleagues and friends with a critical eye. If you want a professional look, send it to a Bid Writer. Our sister company, Hudson Succeed, actually offer this service through Tender Mentor. All of these methods will help ensure a strong bid.

Time management – Always ensure that you’re keeping on top of tenders for medicine supplies. Your submission won’t be evaluated if it arrives after the deadline, no matter the quality. Produce some internal deadlines for yourself and the team. Organise progress meetings so that everyone is kept up to date. The more your bid is managed, the better the final product will be.

Capability/eligibility – Ensure that you’re choosing the right tender. For instance, if the contract value exceeds half of your annual revenue, it’s probably outside of your current capabilities. This advice is only given to avoid a failure to meet the contract should you win it. Too many suppliers overstretch and fall short of delivering the goods. The same goes for certifications and qualifications. Although it’s unlikely you’ll win without them, ensuring you have the relevant qualifications will add further confidence in your abilities.

Communication – If the opportunity arises, organise some clarification questions. Take some time aside to really hone your questions, thinking about what you need to know about the contract.

In summary

Here we are, at the end of this blog for responding to a tender for medicine supply. You may have started your submission, or nearly finished it, but you’re feeling unconfident about bid writing. You may be wondering how Hudson Succeed can help you…

Need help writing your next medical supply tender?

If you don’t have the resources or time to write a winning bid, why not outsource it? Our sister company, Hudson Succeed, boasts an 87% success rate and have over 60 years of collective bidding experience. They offer four bid writing support packages to help you on the path to success. Whether you’re new to tendering, or simply need someone to proof your written response before you submit – we can help.

Tender Ready

Our Tender Ready programme is designed for those who have never tendered before. This four-week programme works with you to ensure you have everything in place to tender successfully.

Tender Improvement

Tender Improvement can help if you’re already tendering but aren’t seeing success from your current efforts. Our Bid Writers will assess your previous submissions and supporting documents. They’ll give you feedback and guidance on how to improve, helping you to secure your next medicine supply tender.

Tender Mentor

If you’ve written a tender and need someone to proofread, it – Tender Mentor is for you. A Bid Writer will double-check it’s in line with the specification and free of any grammar or spelling mistakes.

Tender Writing

If you’ve found the perfect tender but don’t know where to start – we can help. Send the specification over to us and our Bid Team will do the rest. They’ll let you know what they need from you and provide you with a full breakdown. They’ll even submit it on your behalf, leaving you more time to focus on your business.

Contact us for more information regarding our bid management consultancy services.

The Art of Winning Government Medical Tenders

Learn from the best when it comes to government medical tenders!

For most, the process of winning government medical tenders can be daunting. With this blog, you’ll discover our insights and how to secure these contracts. Alongside this, you’ll increase your knowledge around the tendering process, putting you in a better position to win.

Who commissions government medical tenders?

When it comes to government medical tenders, the commissioning authority is often seen as the NHS. But it’s more complicated than that. Across the UK, there are smaller local authorities known as Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) which facilitate procurement in local areas. There are currently around 200 CCGs in England alone. They cover:

  • Community and district nurses
  • Local psychotherapists and occupational therapists
  • Planned hospital care
  • Urgent and emergency care (including out-of-hours)
  • Mental health and learning disability services.

However, some services need to be procured centrally by the NHS, such as;

  • Offender health
  • Dentistry, ophthalmology
  • Armed forces care
  • Immunisation/screening programmes.

What about LHBs, LCGs and RHBs?

We’ve covered CCGs, but what about the other devolved powers (Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland)? How do they procure their healthcare services/goods in the public sector? Since the 1990s, each country has taken control of its own healthcare procurement.

LHBs

The Welsh equivalent of CCGs, seven of these Local Health Boards procure healthcare services across Wales. Ambulances and specialist services for cancer are provided by three other NHS Trusts. There are no major differences between LHBs and CCGs other than the Welsh healthcare legislation.

LCGs

For Northern Ireland, their healthcare is provided by five Local Commissioning Groups. These in turn are run by an overarching Health and Social Care Board (HSCB). The major difference between these and the other countries’ health procurement structures is that the LCGs also procure social services.

RHBs

The Scottish equivalent of CCGs lies in the Scottish Health board. 14 Regional Health Boards cover all of Scotland, and plan/deliver health services based on the needs of the local community. Similar to Wales, they also have seven special NHS boards, which take care of:

  • Health education
  • Public health
  • Offender health
  • Ambulance services
  • Blood transfusion services.

6 steps in the government’s medical tendering process

Some of these steps may be excluded from your tendering process for government medical tenders. However, it’s wise to know each step so that you’re prepared for any eventuality.

PIN

The government body will release the PIN to indicate an intention of their desire for healthcare services. This can be up to 12-months in advance. At this stage, you would be asked to provide an expression of interest.

Contract notice

This is the official launch of the contracting commission’s interest, usually in the form of an ad. You would likely find it on websites and tendering databases.

Selection questionnaire

At this stage in the process, a selection questionnaire (SQ) is provided.  This document ensures only the most suitable candidates move to the next step. Depending on the contract, you can expect a list of questions that confirm your viability.

ITT

Arguably, this is the heart of the tendering process. Most of the written work is concentrated here. The Invitation to Tender works to further sharpen that search for a successful supplier. Your tender response will be dependent on the buyer’s requirements. Due to this, the ITT can vary in size and scope.

Presentation

Your tender submission was successful! Occasionally, the contracting commission will end it here. However, sometimes you will be required to present your bid plan or attend an interview. You’ll be assessed by representatives of the Local Health Board (if you’re fulfilling a local contract).

Contract award

If you’ve won, congratulations! Now you can put your bid plan into action. However, if you haven’t won, you can still take this opportunity to request feedback. This will provide you with a real scope of the improvements that are needed for your next bid.

Conclusion

So, now you’re more knowledgeable about the healthcare tendering process. You’ve also gained insights into the process of securing government medical tenders. What if you need to source government medical tenders now?

Healthcare Tenders

If your business would benefit from bidding for healthcare contracts, then our Healthcare Tender Portal is here to help.

Unlike other portals, we don’t use CPV codes. We have our Opportunity Trackers who manually scour hundreds of websites every day. If they find new healthcare contracts, they then upload it to Healthcare Tenders. With your subscription, you could view all these opportunities from hundreds of portals, in one place.

What’s more, we will assign you a dedicated Account Manager to manage your subscription. They will be on hand to answer your tendering or portal-related queries. You will also receive a daily email bulletin straight to your inbox. This will contain contracts for healthcare services found that day.

Schedule a free live demo of Healthcare Tenders to see how the portal can help your business.

Below are previous government medical tenders sourced on our portal:

HPLC Equipment (Maintenance of)
NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership-Procurement Services (Hosted by Velindre University NHS Trust) – Wales – Budget: Undisclosed

Maintenance of Microscopes
NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership-Procurement Services (Hosted by Velindre University NHS Trust) – Wales – Budget: £99,000

Primary Care Provided Phlebotomy Services
NHS Hampshire, Southampton and Isle of Wight CCG – South East – Budget: £2,989,635

Prior Information Notice 2 – Domestic Plasma Fractionation
NHS England – Yorkshire – Budget: Undisclosed

NHSGJ0052/21 Supply of Electrophysiology Systems with Associated Hardware and Consumables
NHS Golden Jubilee – Scotland – Budget: Undisclosed

LB of Bromley Appropriate Adult Service
London Borough of Bromley – South East – Budget: £ 260,000

We source healthcare business leads for sub-sectors including:

Want to save even more time?

Upgrading to Discover Elite can help you find government medical tenders – even when you’re busy! Our two upgraded packages are particularly useful if your business runs across two sectors like Healthcare and Technology. A dedicated Account Manager will carefully consider which healthcare service contracts are most suitable for your business. This will help improve your bid success rate and improve your competitor awareness.

The Ultimate Time-Saving Tool offers your business:

  • An annual subscription to a maximum of two Discover portals of your choice.
  • Up to five bid breakdowns per month to help you make your bid or no-bid decisions.
  • Weekly phone calls with your Account Manager to discuss viable tendering opportunities.
  • Award and pre-market engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
  • Public and private buyer portal management. This includes registering, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid strategy.

The Become a Pre-Bid Master package offers your business:

  • All the above.
  • Up to seven tender breakdowns per month.
  • The development of a bid strategy delivered by a Senior Bid Manager with a minimum of five years of experience. It will also be managed by our Global Bid Director.

For further information, contact us today.

Need help with a bid proposal? 

Hudson Succeed is our sister company of expert Bid Writers who can handle the whole tendering process for you. So, if you have found a healthcare contract you would like to bid for, Hudson Succeed can help. Their tender support packages are designed to help your business succeed. Find out how our Bid Writers can support you on your tendering journey.

Contact us for more information regarding our bid management consultancy services.

NHS Dental Contracts – All Your Questions Answered

Get the NHS dental contract information you need with this blog!

NHS dental contracts play a vital role in the business growth of dentists, orthodontists, and specialist dental service providers. Whether you’re working on a re-tender or attempting to win a new NHS dental contract, Healthcare tenders has your back. With this blog, we’ll release the secrets of tendering for the NHS.

Who commissions NHS dental contracts?

When most consider dentistry procurement, they imagine an all-powerful branch of the NHS, but this isn’t true. As you probably know, the Primary Care Trust (PCT) local to your area will list your status as a dentist. The PCT can then advertise a tender for further UDAs (see below) in your area.

PCTs vs LHBs…What’s the difference?

Generally, PCTs are the local dental commissioning board for your area in England.

In Wales, they go by a different name: Local Health Board (LHB).

They both advertise contracts for the provision of NHS dental services.

The only difference between the two is legislation, as the welsh legislation on dental services may be slightly different.

What are UDAs?

Units of Dental Activity are a measure of the amount of work done during dental treatment.

This is the way that PCTs and LHBs monitor your performance as a dental practice. When you take on an NHS dental contract, you’ll be required to fulfil a specific number of UDAs. If this falls below 96%, the PCT is within its rights to issue remedial/breach notices, alongside contract value reductions.

GDS vs PDS – Which contract do I go for?

General Dental Services (GDS) and Personal Dental Services (PDS) are central to NHS dental contracts. The main difference between the two is the provider. If you are entering a GDS, it’s seen as more flexible. For instance, if you accept new partners, they can serve under that contract. PDS’, on the other hand, are more specialised and only apply to someone with precise skills (an orthodontist, for example). A PDS contract tends to be fixed-term, whilst a GDS can be open-ended.

ICCs- The new commissioning body on the block?

As of late, there’s been a push for the further integration of healthcare services. Due to this, a new term has arisen…Integrated Care Services (ICC). As of June 2022, it will subsume the previous role that CCGs provided, covering emergency healthcare services and dental services. What this means for suppliers is that their way of commissioning and receiving contracts for GDS/PDS might change. The main benefit provided by ICCs is that it pools resources, making procurement more effective.

Where can I find dental tenders?

Through our searches for NHS dental contracts, we’ve come to one conclusion…

Healthcare Tenders

By removing unreliable CPV codes, we’ve created a portal that infinitely smoothens the process of searching for tenders.

Our Healthcare Tenders portal uploads a wide range of tenders in the healthcare industry, across the UK. This helps to streamline the process, saving you time and resources.

What is Healthcare Tenders?

Healthcare Tenders is a time-saving tool. Our Opportunity Trackers manually search hundreds of sites for the latest healthcare leads and opportunities. They upload a whole range of opportunities such as single-provider contracts, NHS frameworks and DPSs. Once they are uploaded to our portal, you can filter the results by budget, keyword, location and more.

Below are previous NHS dental contracts sourced on our portal:

Secondary Care Dental Service (Teesside) 

North Of England Commissioning Support – North East – Budget: £572,944

West Midlands Out of Hours Urgent Dental Care Service Based in Birmingham 

NHS England and Improvement – West Midlands – Budget: £600,000

NHSE803 – Invitation to Tender – General Dental Services – Sherburn & Tadcaster 

NHS England and NHS Improvement North East & Yorkshire Region – Yorkshire – Budget: £2,241,947

Provision of General Dental Services for Powys Teaching Health Board 

NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership-Procurement Services (Hosted by Velindre University NHS Trust) – Wales – Budget: £154,000

Her Majesty’s Prisons (HMP) – General Dental Services 

North Of England Commissioning Support – North West – Budget: £337,000

Want to save even more time?

Upgrading to Discover Elite will ensure you never miss a tendering opportunity, even when you’re busy!

The Ultimate Time-Saving Tool offers your business:

  • An annual subscription to a maximum of two Discover portals of your choice.
  • Up to five bid breakdowns per month to help you make your bid or no-bid decisions.
  • Weekly phone calls with your Account Manager to discuss viable healthcare leads and tendering opportunities.
  • Award and pre-market engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
  • Public and private buyer portal management including registering, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid strategy.

Contact us for more information.

The three steps to the dental tendering process

PQQ

The pre-qualification questionnaire is often part of the NHS dental tendering process. Consider this a long questionnaire listing the requirements for the bid, alongside details of how the service will be provided.

ITT

Once the PQQ is completed, if you’re successful, an invitation to tender document (ITT) will likely need to be completed. This will further determine whether you join the shortlist of suppliers. For most suppliers this is the heart of your tendering process, so its wise to allocate the majority of your time here.

Meetings, presentations and interviews

You were successful in the completion of the ITT. You are now among the smallest pool of suppliers. It’s here that the PCT will evaluate your entire performance across the tendering process. Once you’ve completed these, the successful supplier will be offered the NHS dental contract.

7 tips for winning NHS dental contracts for tender!

1. Implement a successful bid management strategy

Any successful suppliers will tell you that bid management is a crucial component to their success. To put it simply, the buyer knows how much you’ve invested into a bid, and if you’ve rushed one. There are many strategies out there for bid management but keeping ahead of deadlines should be a high priority. A buyer won’t appreciate a late submission. In fact, if you fail to meet the deadline, your response simply won’t be accepted, regardless of its quality. So, organise progress meetings with your team to showcase your collaborative capabilities. Set internal deadlines so that the bid is broken down into achievable chunks.. Ultimately, all of these bid management strategies will set you up well for bid success.

2. Fully read the tender documents

Too many suppliers provide too much/too little information on questions. In your response, take time aside to focus on the questions regarding:

  • Patient care
  • Risk mitigation
  • Performance management
  • Customer services.

These are the questions that will likely provide you with the best chance to sell yourself. Be careful to avoid including fluffy marketing material or irrelevant information. This will only work to confuse and irritate the buyer, and that’s the last thing you want as a supplier.

3. Relevant case studies

Case studies are vital in responding to NHS Dental contracts for tender. It’s even more important that they’re relevant to the contract you’re bidding for. This also goes for testimonials. Both forms of evidence help provide a real picture of your capabilities. It’s advised that you should provide three case studies from the last five years. Ultimately, the closer your previous work is to the contract, the better.

4. Ensure that you have adequate accreditations & qualifications

It goes without saying, but the healthcare industry is one that rightly requires certain qualifications. This especially applies to you as the supplier of medicines, and without them, you fall at the first hurdle. It’s dreadful when you’ve invested time into a bid for it to fail because of not having the qualifications. So, to avoid this, thoroughly read and digest the requirements. This is especially important in the case of Personal Dental Services (PDS). These contracts require someone specialised within the dental industry such as an orthodontist.

5. Proofreading & Grammar

Competition for NHS dental contracts for tender can be intense, so ensuring documents are grammatically correct is vital. Part of that process is proofreading. Look over your work multiple times to make sure errors are corrected. It also helps to get a colleague to look it over for stray errors. Look into outsourcing as an option. Our sister company Hudson Succeed hosts the service Tender Mentor that aids with proofreading.  Send your work to their team and they will provide a critical review, ensuring it’s error-free when you submit the bid.

6. Stick to the formatting requirements

NHS Dental tenders can be rather strict when it comes to formatting. If you blatantly ignore instructions, it will reflect poorly on you and your business. Make sure before you submit that the font and font size is what is stated in the guidance document.

Moreover, you should stick to the word/character counts. If a buyer is wanting a longer response, they will include an additional text box.

So, it’s best if you’re writing your response in Word, for example, to check your character count with spaces. You don’t want to be writing a detailed 1000-word response to then have to cut it down.

7. Be proactive with your feedback!

In the case that you’re unsuccessful, be proactive in asking for feedback from the buyer. Not only will this help inform your future attempts with the buyer, but it’ll improve your bidding as a whole.

Another way to increase your chances of success when bidding for dental contracts is to highlight added value.

In the public sector, contracts are awarded to the most economically advantageous tender, or the ‘MEAT’. Therefore, when producing your tender response, you need to show how you’re going to add value to the buyer. What can you offer that your competitors don’t have? This could include anything from innovation to sustainability.

In summary

So that’s it. We’ve finished this blog on the intricacies of NHS dental contracts, and the tricks to sourcing/winning them. What if you need a recap?

Who commissions the NHS dental contracts? – Within each regional area, a Primary Care Trusts exists that overlooks dental procurement.

PCTs vs LHBs- Whats the difference – PCTs are the regional dental commissioning board, and LHBs are the Welsh equivalent.

What are UDAs – Units of Dental Activity (UDAs) act as a measure of dental services.

GDS vs PDS – Which contract do I go for? – General Dental Services overlook normal dental services, whereas Personal Dental Services focus on specialised dental services such as orthodonture.

ICCs- the new commissioning board on the block? – With the advent of Integrated Care Systems, they may replace PCTs in the commissioning of Dental services.

Where can I find dental services? – A look into our specalised service for searching Healthcare Tenders.

The three steps to the tendering process

  1. PQQ – A pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ) it covers the minimum requirements for tendering.
  2. ITT – A heavier tender document overlooking pricing, delivery, quality etc.
  3. Meetings, presentations & interviews – Final selection phase to ensure the best candidate is selected.

7 tips for winning NHS contracts for tender

  1. Implement a bid management strategy – Organise your team through meetings and internal deadlines.
  2. Fully read the tender documents – Be sure to fully digest the documentation and avoid irrelevant answers.
  3. Relevant case studies – Make sure to include similar testimonies and past experience in your tender documentation.
  4. Ensure adequate accreditation & qualifications – Ensure that you have all the relevant qualifications and criteria for tendering.
  5. Proofreading & grammar – Retain a grammatical standard, and get friends, family, and colleagues to review your work.
  6. Stick to the formatting requirements – Follows the buyer’s instructions when it comes to word count, font etc.
  7. Be proactive with your feedback – Take the initiative if you don’t win the tender, asking questions as to why you didn’t win.

Need help writing your next dental tender?

If you don’t have the resources or time to write a winning bid, why not outsource it? Our sister company, Hudson Succeed, boasts an 87% success rate and have over 60 years of collective bidding experience. They offer four bid writing support packages to help you on the path to success. Whether you’re new to tendering, or simply need someone to proof your written response before you submit – we can help.

Tender Ready

Our Tender Ready programme is designed for those who have never tendered before. This four-week programme works with you to ensure you have everything in place to tender successfully.

Tender Improvement

Tender Improvement can help if you’re already tendering but aren’t seeing success from your current efforts. Our Bid Writers will assess your previous submissions and supporting documents. They’ll give you feedback and guidance on how to improve, helping you to secure your next NHS dental contract.

Tender Mentor

If you’ve written a tender and need someone to proofread, it – Tender Mentor is for you. A Bid Writer will double-check it’s in line with the specification and free of any grammar or spelling mistakes.

Tender Writing

If you’ve found the perfect tender but don’t know where to start – we can help. Send the specification over to us and our Bid Team will do the rest. They’ll let you know what they need from you and provide you with a full breakdown. They’ll even submit it on your behalf, leaving you more time to focus on your business.

Get in touch to find out more information about our bid management consultancy services.

Start Winning Dental Tenders with These 3 Tips

Earn that winning smile with dental tenders

According to LaingBuisson, the dental industry in the U.K amounts to over £7.1 billion, and dental tenders play a pivotal role. Dental tenders can act as catalysts for exponential business growth. In essence, it’s the perfect time to start bidding on dental contracts. Fortunately, we’ve got experience with dental tenders, so we’ll walk you through methods of sourcing and winning these contracts.

Where can I find dental tenders?

Through our extensive searches for dental contracts, we’ve come to one sensible option…

Hudson Discover.

By removing unreliable CPV codes, we’ve created a portal that infinitely smoothens the process of tender searches.

Our Healthcare Tenders portal uploads a wide range of tenders in the healthcare industry, across the UK. This helps to streamline the process, saving you time and resources.

What is Healthcare Tenders?

Healthcare Tenders is a time-saving tool. Our Opportunity Trackers manually search hundreds of sites for the latest healthcare leads and opportunities. They upload a whole range of opportunities such as single-provider contracts, NHS frameworks and DPSs. Once they are uploaded to our portal, you can filter the results by budget, keyword, location and more.

Below are previous dental tenders sourced on our portal:

Market Engagement Webinar for the Provision of Dental

Services in Oswestry, Shropshire

NHS Arden and Greater East Midlands Commissioning Support Unit – West Midlands – £655,920

General Dental Services Scarborough

NHS England – North (Yorkshire and the Humber) – Yorkshire – £7,246,148

Secondary Care Dental Service (Teesside)

North Of England Commissioning Support – North East – £572,944

Provision of Personal Dental Services for Powys Teaching Health Board

NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership-Procurement Services (hosted by Velindre University NHS Trust) – Wales – £210,000

RFT2116 – Framework Agreement for the provision of Dental Services to the Defence Forces (Curragh)

Irish Defence Forces – Republic of Ireland – Budget: Undisclosed

3 points to take into consideration when you’re bidding for dental tenders

1.    Qualifications

It should go without saying that as dental tenders require medical practitioners to bid, they will require extensive standards. After all, any contract within the healthcare sector should have one central aspect – the quality of patient care. And that can only be verified through several qualifications and regulations. Ultimately, when you’re considering whether to bid, you need to ensure that your qualifications match those needed.

2.    Social value

In the public sector, social value is important in the tendering process, weighing as much as 10% in evaluation criteria. Once you provide evidence that you’re adhering to this model of values, you’re chances of winning a dental tender will increase. To demonstrate social value, buyers are looking to see how you are:

  • Supporting COVID 19 recovery – How is your business aiding the local community in recovering from the effects of the pandemic?
  • Tackling social inequality – Do you have functional discrimination policies in place?
  • Fighting climate change – How are you ensuring your sources are sustainable? What are you doing to reduce wastage?
  • Providing equal opportunities – Are you ensuring that anyone regardless of sexuality, race and disability has equal chances of recruitment?
  • Supporting wellbeing – How are you ensuring the health and wellbeing of your patients? Are you actively helping them maintain a good life?

3.    Time management

Keeping on top of dental tender deadlines should be a top priority. If you miss the deadline, you simply won’t be considered. We recommend creating trackers to ensure you meet the deadline. Set internal dates to work towards and organise progress meetings. These will improve team cohesion and help provide a consistent tender response.

In Summary

So here we are, at the end of this blog on dental tenders! If you need it, here’s a short recap of the blog.

  • Where can I find dental tenders? – An insight into the easiest way of sourcing dental tenders.
  • 3 points to take into consideration when you’re bidding for dental tenders:
  1. Qualifications – Ensuring that you’re adhering to the standards set by regulatory agencies.
  2. Social value – Providing evidence that you’re working to improve your community in line with the government’s areas of focus.
  3. Time management – Keeping on top of tender deadlines. Setting internal dates so that you and your team are prompt in your delivery of the bid.

Need help writing your next dental tender?

If you don’t have the resources or time to write a winning bid, why not outsource it? Our sister company, Hudson Succeed, boasts an 87% success rate and have over 60 years of collective bidding experience. They offer four bid writing support packages to help you on the path to success. Whether you’re new to tendering, or simply need someone to proof your written response before you submit – we can help.

Tender Ready

Our Tender Ready programme is designed for those who have never tendered before. This 4-week programme works with you to ensure you have everything in place to tender successfully.

Tender Improvement

Tender Improvement can help if you’re already tendering but aren’t seeing success from your current efforts. Our Bid Writers will assess your previous submissions and supporting documents. They’ll give you feedback and guidance on how to improve, helping you to secure your next dental tenders.

Tender Mentor

If you’ve written a dental tender and need someone to proofread it – Tender Mentor is for you. A Bid Writer will double-check it’s in line with the specification and free of any grammar or spelling mistakes.

Tender Writing

If you’ve found the perfect tender but don’t know where to start – we can help. Send the specification over to us and our Bid Team will do the rest. They’ll let you know what they need from you and provide you with a full breakdown. They’ll even submit it on your behalf, leaving you more time to focus on your business.

Contact us for more information regarding our bid management consultancy services.

Want to save even more time?

Upgrading to Discover Elite will ensure you never miss a tendering opportunity even when you’re busy!

The Ultimate Time-Saving Tool offers your business:

  • An annual subscription to a maximum of two Discover portals of your choice.
  • Up to five bid breakdowns per month to help you make your bid or no-bid decisions.
  • Weekly phone calls with your Account Manager to discuss viable dental leads and tendering opportunities.
  • Award and pre-market engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
  • Public and private buyer portal management including registering, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid strategy.

Contact us for more information.

 

Get Comfortable with Hospital Bed Tenders!

Read below to learn how to respond to hospital bed tenders!

To say that hospital bed tenders are important to the healthcare industry is an understatement. Over the course of COVID, the desire for these tenders has grown exponentially. This correlates with the nearly 26 billion spent by the government in response to COVID 19 (according to tusell). Therefore, it represents a lucrative tendering opportunity, and that’s where we come in. With this blog, you’ll be privy to our insights on hospital bed tenders. You’ll know where to source them, and, in turn, how to win them.

Where can I find hospital bed tenders?

Why search endlessly for tenders when you can just use one, reliable portal?

Enter Healthcare Tenders!

By removing unreliable CPV codes, we’ve created a portal that infinitely smoothens the process of searching for tenders.

Our Healthcare Tenders portal uploads a wide range of tenders in the healthcare industry, across the UK. This helps to streamline the process, saving you time and resources.

What is Healthcare Tenders?

Healthcare Tenders is a time-saving tool. Our Opportunity Trackers manually search hundreds of sites for the latest healthcare leads. They upload a whole range of opportunities such as single-provider contracts, NHS frameworks and DPS’. Once they are uploaded to our portal, you can filter the results by budget, keyword, location and more.

Below are examples of previous hospital bed tenders sourced on our portal:

Intermediate Care Beds for People in Darlington

North Of England Commissioning Support – North East – Budget: £780,000

General Nursing Intermediate Care Beds

Staffordshire and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit – North West – Budget: £1,100,000

Intermediate Care Beds

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – Yorkshire and Humber – Budget: £23,250,000

Residential Respite and Nursing Care Beds

Comhairle nan Eilean Siar – Scotland – Budget: £10,400,000

NWL0046 Provision of Community Local Beds – Harrow

North West London Clinical Commissioning Group – London – Budget: £1,061,435

Want to save even more time?

Upgrading to Discover Elite will ensure you never miss a tendering opportunity, even when you’re busy!

The Ultimate Time-Saving Tool offers your business:

  • An annual subscription to a maximum of two Discover portals of your choice.
  • Up to five bid breakdowns per month to help you make your bid or no-bid decisions.
  • Weekly phone calls with your Account Manager to discuss viable healthcare leads and tendering opportunities.
  • Award and pre-market engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
  • Public and private buyer portal management including registering, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid strategy.

Contact us for more information

What are hospital bed tenders?

For those not in the know, hospital bed tenders represent part of the procurement process. Organisations such as the NHS publish a tender, and they select a suitable supplier from the bid responses.

3 tips for future success in your tender responses

1.     Successful bid management

Any successful suppliers will tell you that bid management is a crucial component to their success. The buyer knows how much you’ve invested into a bid. There are many strategies out there for bid management but keeping ahead of deadlines should be a high priority. If you fail to meet the deadline, your response simply won’t be accepted, regardless of its quality. So, organise progress meetings with your team to showcase your collaborative capabilities. Set internal deadlines so that the bid is broken down into achievable chunks. All of these bid management tools will set you up well for bid success.

2.      Address every question

Too many suppliers provide too much/too little information on questions, and they don’t focus on the ones that count. In your response, take time aside to focus on the questions regarding:

  • Patient care
  • Risk mitigation
  • Performance management
  • Customer services.

These are the questions that will provide you with the best chance to sell yourself. Be careful to avoid marketing material or irrelevant information. This will only work to confuse and irritate the buyer, and that’s the last thing you want as a supplier.

3.     Relevant case studies

Case studies are vital in responding to hospital bed tenders. It’s even more important that they’re relevant to the contract you’re bidding for. This also goes for testimonials. Both forms of evidence help provide a snapshot of your capabilities. It’s advised that you should provide three case studies from the last five years. Ultimately, the closer your previous work is to the contract, the better.

Conclusion:

So, we’ve reached the end of this blog on hospital bed tenders! We’re sure you’ve got a good grasp on these contracts. What if you need a recap? We’ve got your back!

Where can I find hospital bed tenders?

A thorough look into the sensible option when it comes to sourcing hospital bed tenders is Healthcare Tenders.

3 tips for future success in your bid responses:

  1. Successful bid management – Giving your team internal deadlines and progress meetings to ensure a prompt delivery of the bid.
  2. Address every question – Ensuring questions are answered properly, and taking particular detail in questions around patient care, risk mitigation, performance management, etc.
  3. Relevant case studies – Understanding the importance of relevant evidence for the buyer. Providing three case studies from the last three to five years.

Need help writing your next hospital bed tender?

If you don’t have the resources or time to write a winning bid, why not outsource it? Our sister company, Hudson Succeed, boasts an 87% success rate and have over 60 years of collective bidding experience. They offer four bid writing support packages to help you on the path to success. Whether you’re new to tendering, or simply need someone to proof your written response before you submit – we can help.

Tender Ready

Our Tender Ready programme is designed for those who have never tendered before. This four-week programme works with you to ensure you have everything in place to tender successfully.

Tender Improvement

Tender Improvement can help if you’re already tendering but aren’t seeing success from your current efforts. Our Bid Writers will assess your previous submissions and supporting documents. They’ll give you feedback and guidance on how to improve, helping you to secure your next hospital bed tender.

Tender Mentor

If you’ve written a tender and need someone to proofread, it – Tender Mentor is for you. A Bid Writer will double-check it’s in line with the specification and free of any grammar or spelling mistakes.

Tender Writing

If you’ve found the perfect tender but don’t know where to start – we can help. Send the specification over to us and our Bid Team will do the rest. They’ll let you know what they need from you and provide you with a full breakdown. They’ll even submit it on your behalf, leaving you more time to focus on your business.

Get in touch to find out more information about our bid management consultancy services.

Do You Know the Difference Between Public and Private Contracts for Healthcare Services?

Are you looking for public or private sector contracts for healthcare services? That is the first question you need to answer.

Securing contracts for healthcare services can be tricky to navigate if you don’t know where to begin.

Ask yourself, what can you and your business offer? And do you meet the criteria the contract is asking for?

Answering these initial questions is the starting point when looking at contracts for healthcare services. In this blog, we will look at how to secure these contracts and explore the differences between the sectors.

What healthcare services can you tender for?

Healthcare Tenders are published by a variety of buyers both in the public and private sector. Ultimately, these organisations are seeking to procure healthcare services, goods or support for their constituents or service users.

Buyers procure healthcare services including:

However, there are a lot more services that buyers can procure. For example, women can seek IVF care and maternity care. Then there’s children’s healthcare to consider. Meaning tendering for contracts for healthcare services can vary in specialisms. This means that there is a broad range of contracts available. It’s important to establish what you’re looking for to make the tracking process more efficient.

What do you need to have in place to be able to tender for healthcare services?

Due to the nature of the healthcare industry, there will be limitations regarding securing some contracts. If you are intending to go for healthcare contracts, it is important you know what requirements the buyer has stipulated.

We recommend healthcare companies to be CQC (Care Quality Commission) registered before tendering for work. This shows to the buyer that you are legitimate, and will deliver a professional, high-quality service. In some instances, there will also be, Pre-Qualification Questionnaires (PQQ). PQQ’s are used by buyers to determine the suitability of suppliers tendering for their contracts. You will be required to complete the questionnaire alongside submitting evidence to validate your business. Buyers could also use a Selection Questionnaire (SQ). These are more liberal when it comes to the questions. No evidence is required, but you need to ‘self-certify’ why you are suitable.

The 5 main differences between private and public sector healthcare contracts:

Contracts for healthcare services can be procured in both the public and private sector.

  • With public contracts, buyers publish through the government, or public sector bodies, including the NHS. This means companies bid for the contracts, following the framework set out by the government.
  • A private contract for healthcare services is published directly by the buyers. They are open to all, and the guidelines can differ from each new contract.
  • Private contracts, tend to focus more on the budget above all, looking at who can deliver their services cost-effectively. Whereas public contracts will often focus on your quality responses also and whether you meet their requirements.
  • In the public sector, you’re guaranteed to be paid as per the Prompt Payment Code. The private sector is not bound by these regulations.
  • The public sector now places a 10% weighting on social value. This score evaluates how you’re helping to improve the local community, the environment and aid Covid recovery.

To summarise

Before diving into contracts for healthcare services, ensure you are ready with all the necessary requirements that will be considered. Think about what the buyer is asking and what it is that you can do better than others.

Ensure you have the correct accreditations to fit the contract. Are you CQC registered, or at least in the process of becoming so? Do you need to answer a PQQ or SQ? Planning ahead will enable you to prepare, giving you a better chance of winning healthcare contracts.

Healthcare Tenders

If your business would benefit from bidding on healthcare contracts, then our Healthcare Tender Portal is here to help.

Unlike other portals, we don’t use CPV codes. We have our Opportunity Trackers who physically scour portals every day. If they find new healthcare contracts, they then upload it to Healthcare Tenders. With your subscription, you could view all these opportunities from hundreds of portals, in one place.

What’s more, we will assign you a dedicated Account Manager to manage your subscription. They will be on hand to answer your tendering or portal-related queries. You will also receive a daily email bulletin straight to your inbox. This will contain contracts for healthcare services found that day.

Schedule a free live demo of Healthcare Tenders to see how the portal can help your business.

Below are previous healthcare tenders sourced on our portal:

Children and Young People Speech Therapy Services
Cheshire west and Chester Borough Council – North West – £1.9 Million

Domiciliary Care Package
Durham County Council – North East – Budget: Undisclosed

Early Years Assessment Provisions
Gloucestershire County Council – South West – Budget: Undisclosed

Residential Placements for Young Males
The Isle of Man Government – North West – Budget: Undisclosed

Acute Hospital Setting
London Borough of Hounslow – London – Budget: Undisclosed

We source healthcare business leads for sub-sectors including:

Want to save even more time?

Upgrading to Discover Elite can help you find more healthcare contracts – even when you’re busy! Our two upgraded packages are particularly useful if your business runs across two sectors such as Healthcare and Technology. A dedicated Account Manager will carefully consider which healthcare service contracts are most suitable for your business. This will help improve your bid success rate and improve your competitor awareness.

The Ultimate Time-Saving Tool offers your business:

  • An annual subscription to a maximum of two Discover portals of your choice.
  • Up to five bid breakdowns per month to help you make your bid or no-bid decisions.
  • Weekly phone calls with your Account Manager to discuss viable tendering opportunities.
  • Award and pre-market engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
  • Public and private buyer portal management. This includes registering, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid strategy.

The Become a Pre-Bid Master package offers your business:

  • All the above.
  • Up to seven tender breakdowns per month.
  • The development of a bid strategy delivered by a Senior Bid Manager with a minimum of five years of experience. It will also be managed by our Global Bid Director.

For further information, contact us today.

Need help with a bid proposal?

Hudson Succeed is our sister company of expert bid writers who can handle the whole tendering process for you. So, if you have found a healthcare contract you would like to bid for, Hudson Succeed can help. Their tender support packages are designed to help your business succeed. Find out how our Bid Writers can support you on your tendering journey.

Contact us for more information regarding our bid management consultancy services.

What You Need to Know About Medical Consumables Tenders

Medical consumables tenders: Answering your questions

Medical consumables tenders are integral to the healthcare industry. Since the pandemic, healthcare procurement rates have shot up. This provides lucrative opportunities for anyone with the initiative, and this is where we come in. In this blog, we’ll share some insights into the tendering process for medical consumables tenders.

What are medical consumables tenders?

For those who don’t know, medical consumables tenders are the result of healthcare procurement. This means that the buyer (often the NHS) is provided with a pool of suppliers. The process contains the desire for suppliers, initial shortening, and eventual selection of the buyer.

Tenders could ask for the supply of various consumables, such as:

  • Syringe needles
  • First aid kits
  • Stethoscopes
  • Ice packs
  • Orthopaedic footwear
  • Clinical reagents
  • Disposable gloves
  • Medical scrubs
  • Suction catheter

Environment-friendly tenders and social value

To help reduce waste and safeguard the environment, the purchasing authority will buy consumables and services that adhere to:

  • Maximum post-consumer waste or recyclable material
  • Minimal packaging
  • Minimal environmental dangers
  • Maximum energy efficiency
  • Recycling potential
  • Disposal expenses.

With the advent of social value, integrating social and environmental responsibility into your products is growing in importance. Social value generally focuses on:

  • Creating new jobs and promoting skills
  • Encouraging economic growth
  • Supporting COVID-19 recovery
  • Tackling climate change
  • Levelling up the UK.

Eligibility

To secure medical consumables tenders, it’s no surprise that you would need qualifications and accreditations. After all, the purchasing authority needs to know that you can adequately supply the contract. Without these qualifications, your chances of winning the contract reduce significantly. So, organising your certifications and evidence will support your credibility.

In summary

So, we’ve finished this blog on medical consumables tenders! Now you have a good grasp on what it takes to succeed. You know about:

  • The types of tenders that are published
  • The benefits of medical consumables tender to both the buyer and the supplier
  • How important it is to adhere to ‘Social Value’ and ensure your products are environmentally friendly.

Where can I find medical consumables tenders?

Through our extensive searches for medical consumables tenders, we’ve come to one sensible option…

Healthcare Tenders

By removing unreliable CPV codes, we’ve created a portal that infinitely smoothens the process of searching for tenders.

Our Healthcare Tenders portal uploads a wide range of tenders in the healthcare industry, across the UK. This helps to streamline the process, saving you time and resources.

What is Healthcare Tenders?

Healthcare Tenders is a time-saving tool. Our Opportunity Trackers manually search hundreds of sites for the latest healthcare leads and opportunities. They upload a whole range of opportunities such as single-provider contracts, NHS frameworks and DPSs. Once they are uploaded to our portal, you can filter the results by budget, keyword, location and more.

Below are previous medical consumables tenders sourced on our portal:

Breathing Systems & Consumables

NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership-Procurement Services (hosted by Velindre University NHS Trust) –Wales – Budget: £2,861,528

Laboratory Scale Spray Dryer Framework

Centre for Process Innovation – North East – Budget: £177,897

TCD-22-C0968 – COVID-19 Antigen Test kits

Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin – Republic of Ireland – Budget: £5,000,000

Supply of Sterilisation Paper & Tray Wrap

University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust – West Midlands – Budget: £100,000

Coagulometer & Consumables [3695980]

Procurement and Logistics Service – Northern Ireland – Budget: £104,000

Want to save even more time?

Upgrading to Discover Elite will ensure you never miss a tendering opportunity, even when you’re busy!

The Ultimate Time-Saving Tool offers your business:

  • An annual subscription to a maximum of two Discover portals of your choice.
  • Up to five bid breakdowns per month to help you make your bid or no-bid decisions.
  • Weekly phone calls with your Account Manager to discuss viable healthcare leads and tendering opportunities.
  • Award and pre-market engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
  • Public and private buyer portal management including registering, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid strategy.

Contact us for more information.

Need help writing your next medical consumables tender?

If you don’t have the resources or time to write a winning bid, why not outsource it? Our sister company, Hudson Succeed, boasts an 87% success rate and have over 60 years of collective bidding experience. They offer four bid writing support packages to help you on the path to success. Whether you’re new to tendering, or simply need someone to proof your written response before you submit – we can help.

Tender Ready

Our Tender Ready programme is designed for those who have never tendered before. This four-week programme works with you to ensure you have everything in place to tender successfully.

Tender Improvement

Tender Improvement can help if you’re already tendering but aren’t seeing success from your current efforts. Our Bid Writers will assess your previous submissions and supporting documents. They’ll give you feedback and guidance on how to improve, helping you to secure your next medical consumables tenders.

Tender Mentor

If you’ve written a tender and need someone to proofread, it – Tender Mentor is for you. A Bid Writer will double-check it’s in line with the specification and free of any grammar or spelling mistakes.

Tender Writing

If you’ve found the perfect tender but don’t know where to start – we can help. Send the specification over to us and our Bid Team will do the rest. They’ll let you know what they need from you and provide you with a full breakdown. They’ll even submit it on your behalf, leaving you more time to focus on your business.

Get in touch to find out more information.

Responding to A Tender for PPE – Our Insights

Read below to gain our insight on Tenders for PPEs

Until March 2020, a tender for PPE was an important aspect of healthcare procurement. With everything that’s happened since the stats don’t lie in saying that PPE is a feature of everyday procurement. In this blog, we’ll take you through the tendering process involved in winning a tender for PPE.

Tender for PPE can include procuring equipment such as:

  • Protective clothing
  • Helmets
  • Gloves
  • Face shields
  • Goggles

What does the procurement process look like for a tender for PPE?

SQ/PQQ

The selection questionnaire asks preliminary questions about the capabilities and competence of the supplier. Are you able to fully supply the contract? What is your evidence for supplying previous contracts similar to this tender for PPE? All these and more will be asked in the SQ.

ITT

An Invitation to Tender, this focuses on the suppliers who have piqued the buyer’s interest. One can generally assume that the lowest bid for the best product quality will be awarded here. This is also known as the MEAT(Most Economically Advantageous Tender). Each ITT is unique and may have different directions concerning response formats. Procurement timetables will be included, outlining:

  • Clarification questions
  • Deadline for responses
  • Contract award date
  • Contract commencement date
  • Conditions of contract
  • Service specification.

Bid response

Following the information above, you now need to create a winning bid response to this tender for PPE.

Presentations

You’ve completed your bid response and sent it off to the buyers. You’ve been successful and are therefore shortlisted for a presentation/interview. This determines your capabilities to the commission and helps give them a taste for the customer experience.

Contract Award

Generally, there are two outcomes here, and regardless of what happens, you can still get the most from the process.

If you win

Use this as a steppingstone for further success, putting the bid you’ve made into a collection of bids. This is also known as a bid library.

If you lose

Be proactive by asking the buyer for feedback! The closer you are to understanding what went wrong, the stronger your next bid will be.

Conclusion:

So, we’ve arrived at the end of this blog on tenders for PPE. You’re now caught up with the tendering process when it comes to writing PPE bids. You may be wondering how Hudson can help you…

Where can I find Tenders for PPE?

You may be wondering where you can find PPE tenders. You likely don’t have the time to trawl through thousands of websites, relying on inaccurate CPV codes. Searching for the right opportunity for your business can turn into quite the headache. Luckily for you, we have a solution.

Our Healthcare Tenders portal uploads all the relevant tenders in the healthcare industry across the UK. This helps to streamline the process, saving you time and resources.

What makes Healthcare Tenders different?

Healthcare Tenders is a time-saving tool. Our Opportunity Trackers manually search thousands of sites for the latest healthcare leads and opportunities. They upload a whole range of opportunities such as single-provider contracts, NHS frameworks and DPSs. Once they are uploaded to our portal, you can filter the results by budget, keyword, location and more.

A dedicated Account Manager is on-hand to answer any questions you may have about the tendering process. You’ll also receive a daily email bulletin straight to your inbox containing all the new healthcare tenders uploaded that day. This will save you even more time, allowing you to find the perfect PPE tenders for your business.

Below are previous medical tenders sourced on our portal:

WP199 PPE

SCS JV – London – Budget: £5,000,000

High Visibility, Personal Protection Equipment (PPE), Workwear & Uniforms

Bridgend County Borough Council – Wales – Budget: £440,000

Surgical Gloves 2536562

Procurement and Logistics Service – Northern Ireland – Budget: £5,250,000

Medical Examination Gloves & Surgical Gloves

Collaborative Procurement Partnership LLP (CPP LLP) Acting on Behalf of Supply Chain Coordination Lt – London –Budget: £6,000,000,000

The Supply of Face Coverings

Leidos Supply – South West – Budget: £2,000,000

We source healthcare tenders for the following sub-sectors:

Domiciliary Care Tenders

Medical PPE

Social Care Contracts

Medical Supplies & Consumables

Mental Health Tenders

Supported living Tenders

Medical Equipment Tenders

Book a free live demo today.

Want to save even more time?

Upgrading to Discover Elite can help optimise your tendering efforts even when you’re busy! Our two upgraded packages are particularly useful if your business runs across two sectors, such as Healthcare and Technology.

A dedicated Account Manager will carefully consider which medical tenders are most suitable for your business. This will help improve your competitor awareness and bid success rate.

The Ultimate Time-Saving Tool offers your business:

  • An annual subscription to a maximum of two Discover portals of your choice.
  • Up to five bid breakdowns per month to help you make your bid or no-bid
  • Weekly phone calls with your Account Manager to discuss viable PPE leads and tendering opportunities.
  • Award and pre-market engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
  • Public and private buyer portal management including registering, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid strategy.

Become a Pre-Bid Master package offers your business:

  • All of the above.
  • Up to seven tender breakdowns per month.
  • The development of a bid strategy delivered by a Senior Bid Manager with a minimum of 5 years of experience. It will also be managed by our Global Bid Director.

Contact us for more information.

Need help with writing your next Tender for PPE?

If you don’t have the resources or time inhouse to write a winning medical tender, why not outsource it? Our sister company, Hudson Succeed, boasts an 87% success rate and have over 60 years of collective bidding experience. We offer four bid writing support packages that can get you on the path to success. Whether you’re new to tendering, or simply need someone to proof your written response before you submit – we can help.

Tender Ready

Our Tender Ready programme is designed for those who have never tendered before. This four-week programme works with you to ensure you have everything in place to tender successfully. It includes a 12-month subscription to Healthcare Tenders.

Tender Improvement

Tender Improvement can help if you’re already tendering but aren’t seeing success from your current efforts. Our Bid Writers will assess your previous submissions and supporting documents. They’ll give you feedback and guidance on how to improve, helping you to secure your next PPE tenders.

Tender Mentor

If you’ve written a PPE tender response and need someone to proofread it – Tender Mentor is for you. A Bid Writer will double-check it’s in line with the specification and free of any grammar or spelling mistakes.

Tender Writing

If you’ve found the perfect PPE tender but don’t know where to start – we can help. Send the specification over to us and our Bid Team will do the rest. They’ll let you know what they need from you and provide you with a full Tender Writing breakdown. They’ll even submit it on your behalf, leaving you more time to focus on your business.

Get in touch to find out more information.

Contracts In the Healthcare Industry – What You Need to Know

Get closer to winning contracts in the healthcare industry with this blog!

Contracts in the healthcare industry are somewhat feared for their complexity. There seems to be some real confusion around these contracts, so in this blog, we aim to dispel that. Read below to discover the tendering process behind contracts in the healthcare industry.

Who procures contracts in the healthcare industry?

People might state simply that the NHS is the ‘buyer’, but there’s more to this than you’d think. Local clinical commissioning groups play a vital role in creating contracts in the healthcare industry. After significant mergers, there are currently 106 CGGs in the U.K, playing central roles in the creation of healthcare contracts. On average, these commissioning groups are serving 250,000 people in their area of service.

Where can I find healthcare contracts?

Look no further than Healthcare Tenders.

By removing unreliable CPV codes, we’ve created a portal that infinitely smoothens the process of searching for tenders. We upload a wide range of tenders in the healthcare industry, across the UK. This helps to streamline the process, saving you time and resources.

What is Healthcare Tenders?

Healthcare Tenders is a time-saving tool. Our Opportunity Trackers manually search hundreds of sites for the latest healthcare leads and opportunities. They upload a whole range of opportunities such as single-provider contracts, NHS frameworks and DPS’. Once they are uploaded to our portal, you can filter the results by budget, keyword, location and more.

Below are previous healthcare tenders sourced on our portal:

GB-Newcastle Upon Tyne: T21-0055 Modular Benchtop
Northumbria University – North East – Budget: £50,000

Provision of Community Step Down Services on Behalf of Central and North West London NHS Foundation
NHS Shared Business Services Ltd (NHS SBS) – London – Budget: £3,900,000

Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Young People’s 16+ Supported Accommodation Service
Nottinghamshire County Council – East Midlands – Budget: Undisclosed

Soft Market – Mental Health Recovery Framework
Sheffield City Council – Yorkshire – Budget: Undisclosed

Community Care Supplies & Services – Adult
Wirral Borough Council – North West – Budget: Undisclosed

What does the healthcare tendering process look like?

1.   PIN (Prior Information Notices)

We start contracts in the healthcare industry with PINs. This is simply the announcement of procurement by the CCG or NHS foundation. These generally take place far before the contract notice, in some cases up to a year beforehand. At this point, you may be asked to provide an expression of interest.

2.   Contract notice

This aspect of the tendering process fleshes out the PIN by stating basic information about the contract. The contract then provides contact details to the suppliers.

3.   SQ

The selection questionnaire is where things really get going in the bid writing process. Although large responses aren’t usually required, it’s dependent on the buyer and the size of the contract.

4.   ITT

You’ve passed the SQ, and you’ve now been invited to tender. In some cases, the buyer may jump in with the ITT. Things to expect as the supplier are:

  1. A cover letter – A generic letter covering what’s to be expected.
  2. A scope of procurement – Things such as the dates, length, value, etc. It’s likely that the contract winner will be chosen based on the MEAT (Most Economically Advantageous Tender). Your response to this is the most important part of winning contracts in the healthcare industry.

5.   Presentation

Your company has been shortlisted for the final stage. You may be invited for a final interview. You can expect 5% of marking to be attributed to this stage.

6.   Contract Award

You’ve done it. You’ve won! This isn’t the time to rest on your laurels, however. You need to act on the promises made during the presentation and prior to that.

In summary

Here we are, at the conclusion to this blog on contracts in the healthcare industry. You now have a greater knowledge when it comes to the healthcare tendering process. You also now know where to find these contracts.

Need help writing your next healthcare tender?

If you don’t have the resources or time to write a winning bid, why not outsource it? Our sister company, Hudson Succeed, boasts an 87% success rate and have over 60 years of collective bidding experience. They offer four bid writing support packages to help you on the path to success. Whether you’re new to tendering, or simply need someone to proof your written response before you submit – we can help.

Tender Ready

Our Tender Ready programme is designed for those who have never tendered before. This four-week programme works with you to ensure you have everything in place to tender successfully.

Tender Improvement

Tender Improvement can help if you’re already tendering but aren’t seeing success from your current efforts. Our Bid Writers will assess your previous submissions and supporting documents. They’ll give you feedback and guidance on how to improve, helping you to secure your next healthcare tender.

Tender Mentor

If you’ve written a healthcare bid and need someone to proofread, it – Tender Mentor is for you. A Bid Writer will double-check it’s in line with the specification and free of any grammar or spelling mistakes.

Tender Writing

If you’ve found the perfect tender but don’t know where to start – we can help. Send the specification over to us and our Bid Team will do the rest. They’ll let you know what they need from you and provide you with a full breakdown. They’ll even submit it on your behalf, leaving you more time to focus on your business.

Get in touch for more information.

Want to save even more time?

Upgrading to Discover Elite will ensure you never miss a tendering opportunity, even when you’re busy!

The Ultimate Time-Saving Tool offers your business:

  • An annual subscription to a maximum of two Discover portals of your choice.
  • Up to five bid breakdowns per month to help you make your bid or no-bid decisions.
  • Weekly phone calls with your Account Manager to discuss viable healthcare leads and tendering opportunities.
  • Award and pre-market engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
  • Public and private buyer portal management including registering, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid strategy.

Contact us for more information.

What’s Different About NHS Bid Writing?

3 tips to upgrade your NHS bid writing process

NHS bid writing informs an integral cog in the wheel of UK healthcare procurement. In 2020, The DHSC recorded £70 billion in expenditure, and since the pandemic, this is sure to have skyrocketed. This has created unprecedented levels of demand for healthcare services across the board.

So, where does this leave you when it comes to the NHS bid process?

With serious opportunities for growth and development!

In this blog, we’ll look at sources of NHS tenders, alongside tips to help your NHS bid writing tactics.

Where can I find NHS tenders?

Through our extensive searches for NHS contracts, we’ve developed one central portal…Healthcare Tenders.

By removing unreliable CPV codes, we’ve created a portal that infinitely smoothens the process of searching for tenders. We upload a wide range of tenders in the healthcare industry, across the UK. This helps to streamline the process, saving you time and resources.

What is Healthcare Tenders?

Healthcare Tenders is a time-saving tool. Our Opportunity Trackers manually search hundreds of sites for the latest healthcare leads and opportunities. They upload a whole range of opportunities such as single-provider contracts, NHS frameworks and DPS’. Once they are uploaded to our portal, you can filter the results by budget, keyword, location and more.

Below are previous NHS tenders sourced on our portal:

Provision of Improving Access to Psychological Therapies, Individual CBT Waiting List Support

Rotherham, Doncaster and South Humber NHS FT – Yorkshire – Budget: £150,000

Early-Stage Products Strategic Design Support

NHS England – Yorkshire – Budget: £75,000

CLCH – Podiatry Support Merton

Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust – South East – Budget: Undisclosed

RA314325 – NWL CCG – Blood Pressure Monitors

NHS Shared Business Services (SBS) – North West – Budget: Undisclosed

Operate, Maintain, and Improve the Learn from Patient Safety Events (LFPSE) Service

The National Health Service Commissioning Board (NHS England and Improvement) – London – Budget: £2,000,000

3 tips to improve your NHS bid writing

Make sure you’re eligible

Eligibility is a core element in healthcare tender evaluations, and without it, your chances of winning are dashed. You need to ensure that your qualifications, standards, and policies match the requirements of the NHS. Check out the NHS Procurement & Commercial Standards which includes the requirements suppliers need to meet to qualify for tenders.

Proofreading and reviewing

The gap between success and failure can be very slight, especially when it comes to NHS bid writing. Detail is incredibly important, so understanding the tender documents is essential to winning the bid. Take time to digest the contract, and really get to grips with the terminology. Once you’ve written the response, and reviewed it a few times, you can pass the document onto f colleagues. If the work is clear and easy to read, you’ve won half the battle. Ask them to be as critical as possible, in order to catch any stray errors. If you still don’t feel confident enough in the document, send it to a professional Bid Writer. Our sister company, Hudson Succeed, actually offers this service through Tender Mentor.

Bid and time management

Bid management is crucial to NHS bid writing. You should always be mindful of the deadline, especially when it comes to healthcare. If your bid is too late, it will simply not be considered.

So, how do I achieve good bid management?

  • Set internal deadlines with both your company and yourself
  • Organise progress meetings so that everyone is on board with what’s going on in the wider team and project
  • Track the progress of the teams through project trackers.

In summary

So here we are, at the end of this blog on NHS bid writing! If you need it, here’s a short recap of the blog. You now know about the importance of eligibility when it comes to healthcare, alongside always keeping on top of time management. You also know about methods for proofing/reviewing to ensure that your finished bid is the best version it can be. As well, you’ve been informed about solid sources for tendering.

Need help writing your next NHS tender?

If you don’t have the resources or time to write a winning bid, why not outsource it? Our sister company, Hudson Succeed, boasts an 87% success rate and have over 60 years of collective bidding experience. They offer four bid writing support packages to help you on the path to success. Whether you’re new to tendering, or simply need someone to proof your written response before you submit – we can help.

Tender Ready

Our Tender Ready programme is designed for those who have never tendered before. This four-week programme works with you to ensure you have everything in place to tender successfully.

Tender Improvement

Tender Improvement can help if you’re already tendering but aren’t seeing success from your current efforts. Our Bid Writers will assess your previous submissions and supporting documents. They’ll give you feedback and guidance on how to improve, helping you to secure your next NHS tender.

Tender Mentor

If you’ve written an NHS bid and need someone to proofread, it – Tender Mentor is for you. A Bid Writer will double-check it’s in line with the specification and free of any grammar or spelling mistakes.

Tender Writing

If you’ve found the perfect tender but don’t know where to start – we can help. Send the specification over to us and our Bid Team will do the rest. They’ll let you know what they need from you and provide you with a full breakdown. They’ll even submit it on your behalf, leaving you more time to focus on your business.

Get in touch to find out more information about our bid management consultancy services.

Want to save even more time?

Upgrading to Discover Elite will ensure you never miss a tendering opportunity, even when you’re busy!

The Ultimate Time-Saving Tool offers your business:

  • An annual subscription to a maximum of two Discover portals of your choice.
  • Up to five bid breakdowns per month to help you make your bid or no-bid decisions.
  • Weekly phone calls with your Account Manager to discuss viable healthcare leads and tendering opportunities.
  • Award and pre-market engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
  • Public and private buyer portal management including registering, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid strategy.

Contact us for more information.