Magnetic resonance imaging equipment

Tender description

In order to provide high quality clinical imaging and cutting edge research capabilities for our scientific and technical research program, it is essential that we upgrade the existing Philips 3T MRI Scanner. A full upgrade of the scanner to a digital platform without replacement of the actual magnet would enable us to maintain full functionality of the current scanner with additional specialist advanced imaging packages. Replacing the entire system would be considerably more costly and would also result in more than 12 weeks downtime for the scanner, i.e. a substantial disruption to our clinical and research program. Therefore, from a technical point of view, Philips Electronics is the only supplier able to facilitate our requirements for an upgrade whilst maintaining our current technical ability. Under Regulation 33(1)(b)(ii)of the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations, a contracting authority may use the negotiated procedure without prior publication in the case of a public contract, based on the following justification: Competition is absent for technical reasons (but only where no reasonable alternative or substitute exists and the absence of competition is not the result of an artificial narrowing down of the parameters of the procurement).