---
title: "Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS)"
ocid: "ocds-h6vhtk-02c67c"
canonical_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-02c67c"
markdown_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-02c67c.md"
json_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-02c67c.json"
source: "Find A Tender Service"
current_stage: "Award"
buyer: "NORTH BRISTOL NHS TRUST"
published: "2021-07-09"
---

# Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS)

Buyer: NORTH BRISTOL NHS TRUST  
Current stage: Award  
OCID: ocds-h6vhtk-02c67c

[View canonical contract page](https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-02c67c)  
[Download OCDS JSON](https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-02c67c.json)

## Summary

The North Bristol NHS Trust has completed a tender process for a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS), classified under medical information systems. This procurement falls within the goods category and is aimed at supporting pathology services across multiple health organisations, including North Bristol NHS Trust and University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust. The award date for this contract was on 9th July 2021, and the procurement method was conducted as a limited, negotiated process due to technical requirements. The contract, valued at approximately £8,001,400, is crucial for maintaining effective management of laboratory requests, samples, and reports across various sites in the UK, specifically in the Bristol area.

This opportunity represents significant potential for business growth, particularly for companies specialising in medical software solutions and clinical information systems. Businesses with expertise in providing managed IT services that cater to complex healthcare environments—especially those that can deliver scalable solutions for pathology services—would be ideally positioned to compete in this space. Furthermore, the emphasis on a fully managed service model suggests that suppliers capable of offering comprehensive support and maintenance will find favourable prospects in future tenders linked to this LIMS project.

## Notice

The Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) is a critical clinical IT solution deployed within pathology services that is required to be able to effectively manage requests,samples, and reports. The solution is supplied via a fully managed service to include software, off-site hosting and associated support & maintenance services. The LIMS is required to support all laboratory disciplines and must have the ability to support pathology services for multiple health organisations over multiple sites which currently includes North Bristol NHS Trust, University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust, Infection Sciences at the Royal United Hospital in Bath as well as Public Health England.

### Lot Information

Lot 1

The contract is for the provision of a single Laboratory Information Management System(LIMS) supplied via a fully managed off site hosted service to incorporate the supply of software, hosting and associated support & maintenance services. The LIMS is required to support within a single database the pathology services delivered to multiple hospitals across North Bristol NHS Trust and University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust. In addition, the LIMS is required to support InfectionSciences at the Royal United Hospital in Bath as well as support end users at Public Health England. The solution must be scalable to accommodate changes in workload and any future expansion of services/sites. The solution must be able to create a single patient database fedby the multiple Trust's primary patient management systems and have the capability to support all laboratory disciplines including Newborn Screening and Tissue Typing. The solution must support all required interfaces for downstream systems, analyser connections and multiple blood tracking solutions in place across the four hospitals.

### Procurement Information

It is critical to ensure effective continuation of the LIMS service given current operational demands on pathology services, North Bristol NHS Trust and University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust wider digitisation programme and covid pressures. In addition, the IT infrastructure environment of the legacy solution must be addressed to ensure the solution can continue to meet pathology service needs as well as be compatible for on-going support and maintenance requirements. Given the level of investment already undertaken in time, resource and finances and the significant level of technical effort that would be required to deploy a replacement solution there is a need to ensure potential issues of being able to establish a stable and fully integrated LIMS solution are fully mitigated as well as avoiding disruption to pathology and digital services which could potentially introduce operational and technical risks. In addition, the level of complexity of the solution that is required to be able to meet the essential needs of pathology services across multiple NHS organisations as well as operating within the confines of a single database requires significant expertise in the complexity of NHS pathology network requirements and a supplier that has capacity to deliver a fully managed service to the scale needed with no software development implications for a wide spectrum of pathology disciplines. It is necessary to extend the duration of the existing contract for a period of up to 7 years to enable essential changes to be made to the IT infrastructure environment within the timescales required, mitigate operational and technical risks and provide effective continuation of services which cannot be met by existing market place providers. Further, given the significant level of time, resource and finance that would be required to replace the solution the extended period will also provide sufficient time to undertake a replacement of a critical key system should an alternative supplier be identified at a later stage with the relevant expertise and capacity required to meet the needs of multiple health organisations over multiple sites within a single system.

## Key Details

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication source | Find A Tender Service |
| Latest notice | https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/016138-2021 |
| Notice type | Award Notice |
| Procurement type | Standard |
| Procurement category | Goods |
| Procurement method | Limited |
| Procurement method details | Negotiated without publication of a contract notice |
| Tender suitability | Not specified |
| Awardee scale | SME |
| All stages | Award |

## Dates

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication date | 9 Jul 2021 |
| Submission deadline | Not specified |
| Future notice date | Not specified |
| Award date | 8 Jul 2021 |
| Contract period | Not specified |
| Recurrence | Not specified |

## Values

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender value | Not specified |
| Lots value | Not specified |
| Awards value | Not specified |
| Contracts value | £8,001,400 |

## Status

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender status | Complete |
| Lots status | Not specified |
| Awards status | Active |
| Contracts status | Active |

## Buyer

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Main buyer | NORTH BRISTOL NHS TRUST |
| Locality | BRISTOL |
| Post town | Bristol |
| Postcode | BS10 5NB |
| Country | England |
| ITL 1 | TLK South West (England) |
| ITL 2 | TLK5 West of England |
| ITL 3 | TLK51 Bristol, City of |
| Local authority | Bristol, City of |
| Electoral ward | Horfield |
| Westminster constituency | Bristol North West |
| Delivery location | TLK1 Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Bristol/Bath area |

## Supplier

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Number of suppliers | 1 |
| Supplier names | CLINISYS SOLUTIONS |

## CPV Codes

### Divisions

- 48 - Software package and information systems

### Codes

- 48000000 - Software package and information systems
- 48180000 - Medical software package
- 48814000 - Medical information systems
- 48814400 - Clinical information system

## Release History

- 9 Jul 2021 at 15:53 - Award - Award Notice - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/016138-2021

## Notice URLs

- http://www.nbt.nhs.uk/bristol-weston-nhs-purchasing-consortium

## Provenance

This Markdown file is an alternate public rendering of the D3 Tenders contract record. The canonical page is https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-02c67c. The underlying structured data is available as OCDS JSON at https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-02c67c.json.