Equipment for New Dental School

Tender description

The University of Bristol Dental School is building a new city centre facility in which it will relocate the School. It is expected that over the coming months, the University will be running a variety of tenders for a range of dentistry equipment to equip the new facility. The new School is due to open in September 2022. It is purpose-designed for modern dental education and excellent clinical care. There will be requirements for state-of-the-art clinical and educational technologies that will put Bristol at the forefront of Dental Schools in the UK and among the best Dental Schools in the world. Suppliers of dental equipment must be members of the British Dental Industries Association (BDIA) or equivalent accredited body. Lot 1: Overview of the project and vision for the new dental school. Developing a facility purpose-designed for modern dental education and excellent clinical care, combined with investment in state-of-the-art clinical and educational technologies, will put Bristol at the forefront of Dental Schools in the UK and among the best Dental Schools in the world. The new Dental School will deliver programmes accredited by the General Dental Council, and where relevant, Royal Colleges and Faculty of General Dental Practice. The Bristol model for dental education will deliver significant benefits in educational quality and the student experience. We will create a student-focussed environment with most of the dental undergraduate education taking place in a primary care setting within the new facility. Postgraduate activity will take place within a Postgraduate Institute developed jointly with a local NHS Trust. The value of this model is that students gain the optimal clinical exposure aligned with their stage of learning and development. The model is unique, since other UK Dental Schools are either focussed primarily on Hospital-based learning, or exclusively in primary care with no specialist interface. This blended approach will provide the optimum learning environment for our students, enabling them to graduate from Bristol as a competent, confident safe beginner, capable of independent practice. In the new undergraduate facility, staff are exclusively focussed on education, patient care, and student support. This learning journey protects both students and staff from NHS service pressures, which, in the existing model negatively impacts the quality of education. A key tenet of the General Dental Council’s Preparing for Practice, the move towards the new model and new workforce allows the opportunity to introduce a proper skill mix into the clinical team to create a simulated practice environment. We aim to recruit Dental Therapists, Clinical Dental Technicians, and increase the number of Dental Hygienists within the new model, to improve student exposure to the wider dental team. Integrated team training is a core aspect of the BDS21 Curriculum and BSc Dental Hygiene & Therapy curricula and is also a GDC requirement. The design of new facility to support team training will fully unlock the potential to go further, enhancing employability through a true simulated practice environment. Fulfilling the University’s civic mission: delivering positive impact by improving oral health and education of citizens across Bristol and beyond. We will deliver free patient care to patients in need of dental treatment. We will go further with our outreach activities, working with key partners across the city (NHS, Bristol City Council and charitable sector) to reach groups of patients with high oral health needs on the margins of society. It is critical that the new model is financially sustainable. The new Dental School model will be funded through tuition fee income, research and teaching grants and Dental Undergraduate Tariff. It will be essential that the income streams meet the cost of delivering the ambition for the new Dental School and provide the contribution to support the running and investment in central University services (e.g., Library Services, Sports & Exercise, Student Health, Wellbeing teams etc.). Additional information: In issuing this PIN and seeking to engage with the market, the University makes no commitment to undertake these procurements. Non-participation by economic operators in market consultations will not be taken into account in any future procurement activities and will not preclude and/or prejudice any economic operator from tendering for the provision of these goods and services. For mor informatio