---
title: "Gender Dysphoria Epilation Pathway"
ocid: "ocds-h6vhtk-03584b"
canonical_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-03584b"
markdown_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-03584b.md"
json_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-03584b.json"
source: "Find A Tender Service"
current_stage: "Award"
buyer: "NHS ENGLAND"
published: "2022-08-02"
---

# Gender Dysphoria Epilation Pathway

Buyer: NHS ENGLAND  
Current stage: Award  
OCID: ocds-h6vhtk-03584b

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[Download OCDS JSON](https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-03584b.json)

## Summary

NHS England is seeking to manage the Gender Dysphoria Epilation Pathway through a complete procurement process. This health services contract, identified as "Gender Dysphoria Epilation Pathway," focuses on providing timely facial hair and surgical site epilation for patients with valid referrals. This procurement was officially awarded on 1st July 2022, with the initial contract valued at £1,503,975. The location for service delivery is across the UK, falling under the category of health services. The procurement method utilised was a limited procedure, allowing for the award without prior publication of a call for competition.

This tender presents significant opportunities for businesses operating within the health services sector, particularly for those specialising in epilation and gender dysphoria treatment. Providers with experience in managing referrals, patient care, and financial control for similar health services will find this contract particularly suitable. Engaging with this contract could lead to potentially processing approximately 950 referrals annually, fostering business growth in a specialised and expanding area of health services.

## Notice

Management and administration of the gender dysphoria epilation pathway:
Arrange timely facial hair and surgical site epilation at suitable epilation providers for all patients with valid referrals (via NHS-commissioned Gender Dysphoria Clinics) from the service start date onwards. The assumption is that the service will process 950 referrals per year.
Provide information and support on epilation to patients as needed, including on epilation modality and provider choice.
Make timely payments to epilation providers, maintaining close financial control to ensure only valid invoices are paid.
Record data on epilation referrals and treatment.
Provide a central point of contact regarding epilation for patients, surgical providers, Gender Dysphoria Clinics and Pilots and epilation providers.

### Lot Information

Lot 1

Epilation is commissioned by NHS England for the alleviation of gender dysphoria, as described in the Gender Identity Services for Adults (Non-Surgical Interventions) service specification. Epilation referrals, for both facial hair reduction and surgical preparation hair removal, are currently managed by NHS England regional commissioners. This business case proposes that this function is moved to the Gender Dysphoria National Referral Support Service (GDNRSS). This is a service provided by Arden and GEM CSU and commissioned by NHS England to manage referrals for gender dysphoria surgery, including giving advice to patients and providing detailed reporting to NHS England.

The national epilation referral service to be provided by GDNRSS would:

* Arrange timely facial hair and surgical site epilation at suitable epilation providers for all patients with valid referrals (via NHS-commissioned Gender Dysphoria Clinics) from the service start date onwards. The assumption is that the service will process 950 referrals per year.

* Provide information and support on epilation to patients as needed, including on epilation modality and provider choice.

* Make timely payments to epilation providers, maintaining close financial control to ensure only valid invoices are paid.

* Record data on epilation referrals and treatment.

* Provide a central point of contact regarding epilation for patients, surgical providers, Gender Dysphoria Clinics and Pilots and epilation providers.

Note: This business case was approved through Commercial Panel on 3rd February 2022 (Reference NHS-CSU-2021-615). Due to a change in the method of paying the invoices of epilation providers, the CSU is now planned to pay the invoices directly for efficiency and be reimbursed by NHS England, which has added PS1.2 million to the business case (bringing it over the PS1m threshold). However, it should be noted that the PS1.2 million is currently paid to epilation providers by NHS England regions and under the current proposal would be paid to epilation providers via the CSU, reimbursed by NHS England on a pass-through basis, funded by top-slicing from regions.

### Procurement Information

We did not consider it appropriate to engage with other CSUs, because a key feature of the proposal is that it is an expansion of the existing Gender Dysphoria National Referral Support Service run by Arden and GEM CSU, which has been providing good value. Benefits of using the same CSU include a central point of contact for patients and professionals regarding gender dysphoria referrals (for surgery or epilation) and the existing expertise of the Arden and GEM team regarding the gender dysphoria pathway and patient experience.

## Key Details

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication source | Find A Tender Service |
| Latest notice | https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/021134-2022 |
| Notice type | Award Notice |
| Procurement type | Standard |
| Procurement category | Services |
| Procurement method | Limited |
| Procurement method details | Award procedure without prior publication of a call for competition |
| Tender suitability | Not specified |
| Awardee scale | Large |
| All stages | Award |

## Dates

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication date | 2 Aug 2022 |
| Submission deadline | Not specified |
| Future notice date | Not specified |
| Award date | 30 Jun 2022 |
| Contract period | Not specified |
| Recurrence | Not specified |

## Values

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender value | Not specified |
| Lots value | Not specified |
| Awards value | Not specified |
| Contracts value | Not specified |

## Status

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender status | Complete |
| Lots status | Cancelled |
| Awards status | Active |
| Contracts status | Active |

## Buyer

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Main buyer | NHS ENGLAND |
| Locality | LEEDS |
| Post town | Leeds |
| Postcode | LS2 7UE |
| Country | England |
| ITL 1 | TLE Yorkshire and The Humber |
| ITL 2 | TLE4 West Yorkshire |
| ITL 3 | TLE42 Leeds |
| Local authority | Leeds |
| Electoral ward | Little London & Woodhouse |
| Westminster constituency | Leeds Central and Headingley |
| Delivery location | Not specified |

## Supplier

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Number of suppliers | 1 |
| Supplier names | NHS ARDEN AND GREATER EAST MIDLANDS COMMISSIONING SUPPORT UNIT |

## CPV Codes

### Divisions

- 85 - Health and social work services

### Codes

- 85100000 - Health services

## Release History

- 2 Aug 2022 at 14:03 - Award - Award Notice - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/021134-2022

## Notice URLs

- https://www.england.nhs.uk//
- https://www.judiciary.uk/

## 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-03584b. The underlying structured data is available as OCDS JSON at https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-03584b.json.