Managed Equipment Service for Nucleic Acid Amplification Technology Testing (NAT Testing).

Descriptions

NHS Blood and Transplant is a Special Health Authority, responsible for the provision of blood components and tissues and a range of associated specialist laboratory and patient therapeutic services to hospitals in England and North Wales. The Authority operates at a local level through a network of Blood Centres but is structurednationally for managerial control with a single management team under its own Chief Executive Officer.The Authority has two testing sites in England at Manchester and Filton, collecting approximately 1.9 million blood and approximately 8 000 tissue and stem cell donations each year. Within the Blood Supply directorate of the Authority, the testing function performs Nucleic Acid Amplification Technology (NAT) Testing whichis the screening of blood, tissue and stem cell donations for detection of Hepatitis C (HCV) ribonucleic acid (RNA) Human Immunodeficiency virus (HIV) RNA and Hepatitis B (HBV) deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and West Nile Virus (WNV) RNA.The Authority requires supply and installation of a fully integrated microbiology managed equipment service for NAT Testing at its two sites. This includes the assays, equipment and data management software required to send final results to the Authority's information management system.The successful tenderer's system must be capable of detecting Hepatitis C (HCV) ribonucleic acid (RNA), Human Immunodeficiency virus (HIV) RNA, Hepatitis B (HBV) deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and West Nile Virus (WNV) RNA. The Authority also needs the successful tenderer's system to be sufficiently flexible for the parties to be able to work together during the contract term to implement appropriate solutions to meet any additional requirements of the Authority when these are fully known, for example to manage molecular screening for additional infectious agents, which may include but is not necessarily limited to Hepatitis E (HEV), Chikungyna and Dengue Fever; and to adapt to accommodate new developments in technology for donation/donor screening.