EBME Forums Forums Management Medical Equipment Management Shortlist criteria

We are in a process of shorlisting 5 companies who have expressed interest for the supply of Theatre Anaesthetic machines and Patient monitoring equipment. What criteria should I use to weed out the "also ran"......Any ideas??

1) Service support.
2) Service support.
3) Service support.

... together, perhaps, with the quality of their biscuits!

... and breaking what Geoff said down

1. Who's going to be responsible for first line support. I'm sure some companies would only like their employees fixing their equipment but when there's a patient on the table you want to be able to fix some faults there and then.

2. Availability of spares, I'm sure it's cheaper to manufacture in the developing world, but I'm sure you want a UK supplier of parts.

3. If your going to be performing first line support what training is provided. Preferably free of course

I'd also check the cost of sundaries, you don't really want the company making up their profits on spares and sundaries.
Then of course as Geoff put the quality of their grub

For such a critical purchase (especially), all that (and more ... such as full availability of technical manuals) should be written into the prospectus right from the start, Chris. You must make sure that your voice is heard, Sav!.

First, suggest you split this into two. A good anaesthetic machine supplier is not always a good monitoring provider. you don't want to have good moniors and rubbish anaesthetic machines.
Write the spec for both, remembering conformance with Standards.
Ask for the tenders to specify prices, service costs, training costs, consumable costs and the PPQ.
I hope your supplies and finance departments are involved as they will keep you right on the legal bits of purchasing and tensering etc.

Here's one of the legal hoops that Graham mentioned that must be jumped through if a high value tender is placed...

For a projected tender value over £93,738, we must by law, place an OJEC advert. OJEC stands for the Official Journal of the European Communities. OJECS advertisements are placed for 37 days (unless it is an accelerated procedure) via the Bipsolutions portal website. The advert will generate expressions of interest. All expressions of interest are to be confirmed via email and should be archived, as should all correspondence relating to the tender. All contact details from interested parties should be listed on a spreadsheet. At least one company member’s name should be listed. Once the deadline for expression for interest is reached, the companies list is then sent to the project leader.

...

Geoff and Graham - Thanks for your valuable suggestions.
Service support is def an important criteria. Another one I suppose is " Is the model still being produced" (from PPQ)

John - On receipt of a list of companies who have expressed interest, how do you short list 5 from a possible 20 say. As Geoff and Graham suggested, service support is one area you could examine from tendering document - but most companies listed would say they provide service support!!!!!

Sav, If a lot of companies express interest in tendering do this...

• PTQ/ PQQ (Pre Tender Questionnaire/Pre Qualification Questionnaire)

Where there are too many expressions of interest, a pre-tender questionnaire may be issued to try and target the most appropriate suppliers. This is issued to all interested parties and is a standard NHS document. However this will not be issued without including specific questions from the end user/project leader. The questions you include allow short-listing to take place, as they are specific to the contract and set the parameters required of future suppliers. PTQ's are usually issued for return within a week. A deadline for receipt is always included - if we do not receive PTQ's by the deadline, that company will forfeit its right to receive a tender. Once the pre-tenders are received back into the Procurement office, the responses are put onto a matrix. One copy is forwarded to the end user, the other remains on file in the Procurement office. Once short listing has taken place, regret letters are sent to those who will not be receiving tenders. These are also kept on file. Once this stage has been completed the tender documents can be sent to the interested companies.

Hope this helps - John

Another way, Sav, would be to spare yourself the headaches by engaging a Consultant to do the whole thing for you! If our good friend John Stewart is unavailable, others may be!

Meanwhile, are you really anticipating twenty bidders? Sounds to me like someone there needs to tighten up the spec!

The end user/project leader should write the specification for the Tender. All the other parts of the tendering process should be delt with by your Trusts Puchasing department.