Health services

Tender description

Public Health England (PHE) awarded the contract for the provision of Public Health Microbiology Service for North East to The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The awarded contract is for the provision of Public Health Microbiology Service for North East. It covers the following elements: — timely testing of samples for a wide range of pathogens (including some not tested for by NHS microbiology laboratories), providing results/interpretation to the sender and providing treatment advice to clinicians if required, — processing specialist referred samples for NHS laboratories, — developing/rolling out new tests or methodologies to support PHE locally/nationally, — maintaining existing active links to PHE and other Reference Laboratories, — testing service for the investigation of outbreaks of infections or sporadic infections caused by pathogens specific concern, — professional expert microbiological and virological advice and support in relation to medical and scientific issues pertaining to Public Health Microbiology and PHE. The contract is for 3 years with possible extensions up to 2 years.