COVID-19: unprecedented times – exploring existing options in health and social care to make urgent purchasing decisions

COVID-19 presents a significant challenge to all aspects of normal daily life, in particular it presents major logistical issues for our already over stretched health and social care systems.

Clearly these systems must be able to react extremely quickly to respond to the demands of the outbreak both in the primary, secondary healthcare, and the wider social care settings. This not only includes steps such as making arrangements for remote GP consultations or in hospitals or, indeed, in the community in providing healthcare services, but also in terms of the ‘shielding’ effect of socially isolating vulnerable groups including those aged over 70 etc. The system is having to meet unprecedented and unexpected demands at very short notice.

While in normal circumstances procurement decisions require a relatively long lead time through to the award decision, clearly in our current circumstances decisions in the health and social care sectors, among others, do not have the luxury of time – they have to be made to act quickly and decisively.

Do not despair. Remember that the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCR) already anticipate these kinds of circumstances and allow a great deal of latitude to make rapid, reactive decisions without having to undertake a full and advertised procurement before awarding a contract.

The Cabinet Office has published its first Procurement Policy Note of 2020 – PPN 1/20 highlighting the range of options already available for contracting authorities to pursue in these circumstances, together with measures you should take to safeguard those award decisions.

Options to consider where extreme urgency justifies their use might include any of the following:

• Making rapid direct awards under existing appropriate frameworks or dynamic purchasing systems
• Seeking to explore options of working with other contracting authorities (using Regulation 12)
• Exploring making direct awards in circumstances where only a single provider exists in that market
• Make a direct award under the negotiated procedure without prior publication (using Regulation 32(2)(c))
• Potentially seek to use a procedure but with accelerated timescales (using Regulation 27(5)open; Regulation 28(10) restricted; Regulation 29(10) competitive procedure with negotiation); and
• Seeking to amend an existing contract with a provider to increase requirement/duration etc (using Regulation 72(1)(c))

If we can be of any assistance in guiding you through this difficult and unprecedented period of uncertainty please contact us to discuss further.

For further updates and other articles discussing the impact of the coronavirus please view our coronavirus hub.