Provision of Osteo-Odonto-Kerato-Prosthesis (OOKP) Service

Tender description

Osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis (OOKP) is a highly specialist surgical intervention that can restore meaningful vision to patients suffering from end stage corneal blindness, and for whom conventional corneal surgery is not possible for reasons such as severe ‘dry eyes’ that causes heavy scarring of the cornea. Osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis (OOKP) uses the patient’s own tooth root and alveolar bone to support an optical cylinder and is only considered in end stage corneal disease when there is no other available treatment to restore sight. NHS England would like to identify NHS Trusts who are interested in delivering these services in accordance with the specification. Lot 1: NHS Arden and Greater East Midlands Commissioning Support Unit (AGCSU), on behalf of The NHS Commissioning Board operating as NHS England - Specialised Commissioning (referred to as the Commissioner), ran an Expression of Interest exercise for this service to gauge the potential market interest and capability as a Schedule 3 Service under the Light Touch Regime (LTR) of the Public Contract Regulations 2015. The initial notice indicated that providers willing to Express an Interest would be required to respond to a series of questions which would be scored on a "Pass/Fail" basis. The scoring criteria for each question was stipulated within the questions. Only providers who scored a "Pass" on all "Pass/Fail" questions would be deemed compliant & capable. Depending on the outcome of the Expressions of Interest, the Commissioner reserved the right to direct award to provider(s) with no further competition where there is a single provider expressing an interest and scored a "Pass" on all "Pass/Fail" questions. The notice also stated that, depending on the number of providers who Express an Interest and score a "Pass" on all "Pass/Fail" questions, the Commissioner may seek to undertake a Provider selection process. Through this process, no award was made and therefore the process was abandoned. The Commissioner then undertook a provider selection exercise to which the respondents from the initial expression of interest exercise were invited. A single response was received to the provider selection exercise and evaluation was undertaken in accordance with the published information and an award has been made.