Healthcare Contracts and Tenders

Healthcare procurement covers community and mental health services, prison healthcare, GP and primary care services, and diagnostics such as direct-access ultrasound and MRI. Pathology and laboratory testing, pharmacy dispensing, drug and alcohol treatment, public health programmes such as NHS Health Checks, and children's residential and disability services also come up.

Stotles brings together healthcare tenders and contracts from 100+ portals into one search, so you do not have to check each portal separately, and you can set alerts for new opportunities across the UK and Ireland.

If you want to search the government portals directly, Find a Tender carries higher-value contracts across the UK and Contracts Finder carries lower-value contracts in England. Public Contracts Scotland, Sell2Wales and eTendersNI cover Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, Ireland's eTenders covers Irish public bodies, and many councils, NHS bodies and housing associations publish on their own e-tendering portals such as ProContract. Healthcare notices also appear on the Department of Health and Social Care's Atamis portal, and many NHS awards under the Provider Selection Regime are published as intentions to award rather than open tenders.

Winning NHS and public health work depends on meeting the basic selection criteria buyers set under the Provider Selection Regime, then showing quality, outcomes, access and value. Watching intention-to-award notices matters because providers can make representations during the standstill period before a direct award is confirmed.

Providers of regulated health and social care activities in England must be registered with the Care Quality Commission, and buyers check registration and inspection ratings. Under the Provider Selection Regime, buyers also set basic selection criteria on capacity, financial standing and quality. Under the Procurement Act 2023, suppliers can be excluded for certain criminal convictions, insolvency or failure to pay tax.

NHS bodies buy healthcare services under the Provider Selection Regime, which sets out direct award processes, a most suitable provider process and a competitive process. Many healthcare notices are therefore intentions to award to an existing or chosen provider rather than open tenders, and councils follow the same regime for public health services.

NHS Shared Business Services runs the insourcing of clinical services framework, which NHS trusts and health boards use to bring in extra clinical capacity for endoscopy, sonography, obstetric ultrasound and cardiology outpatients. Contracts under it are often direct awards, including from Welsh health boards operating under their own provider selection rules.

On the social care side, Hampshire County Council's open home care framework is a council-run route that is used for reablement and short-term personal care, and for extra care housing.

NHS England buys prison healthcare, and integrated care boards such as NHS North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board buy diagnostics, community and primary care services. NHS trusts, councils commissioning public health and social care, and Ireland's Health Service Executive are also regular buyers.

Read integrated care board commissioning intentions and joint forward plans, council public health plans and contract expiry dates, which show healthcare services coming up for review. On Stotles you can track those signals and the buyers behind them, then follow a notice from pre-tender through to award.

The core codes are 85000000 (Health and social work services) and 85100000 (Health services), alongside 85300000 (Social work and related services), 85140000 (Miscellaneous health services) and 85323000 (Community health services).