---
title: "National Air Ambulance Service for The Scottish Ambulance Service"
ocid: "ocds-r6ebe6-0000700400"
canonical_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-r6ebe6-0000700400"
markdown_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-r6ebe6-0000700400.md"
json_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-r6ebe6-0000700400.json"
source: "Public Contracts Scotland"
current_stage: "Award"
buyer: "SCOTTISH AMBULANCE SERVICE"
published: "2022-12-09"
---

# National Air Ambulance Service for The Scottish Ambulance Service

Buyer: SCOTTISH AMBULANCE SERVICE  
Current stage: Award  
OCID: ocds-r6ebe6-0000700400

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## Summary

The Scottish Ambulance Service is seeking to procure a National Air Ambulance Service through a selective competitive dialogue process. The procurement aims to deliver innovative, sustainable, and resilient air ambulance services for the public of Scotland. The tender is at the active stage with a tender period ending on 17th August 2022. The service will cover a variety of missions including hospital discharges and critical care transfers, with a focus on quality criteria. The maximum number of candidates for the second stage is set at 6, with an invitation date of 26th September 2022.

This tender for the National Air Ambulance Service by the Scottish Ambulance Service presents business growth opportunities for operators in the air ambulance sector with the required capabilities to provide critical care transport services. Businesses offering aircraft fleet services, maintenance, engineering support, and crew training are well-suited to compete for this opportunity. The procurement process allows for suitable bidders to provide high-quality air ambulance services to the diverse and challenging environment of Scotland, contributing to the wellbeing of the population and supporting sustainable and resilient healthcare operations.

## Notice

The procurement of a national air ambulance service for the Scottish Ambulance Service.

### Lot Information

Lot 1

The Scottish Ambulance Service ("the Service") provides a national air ambulance service to all of Scotland and its islands. This is the only wholly publicly funded air ambulance service in the United Kingdom and provides an invaluable resource to the public of Scotland. Scotland presents a challenging environment for air ambulance operators. Factors to be considered include: - Varied terrain. - Potentially severe weather conditions. - Longer hours of darkness in winter. - Limited and varying airport capabilities and hours of operation. - Future island transport provisions including ferries and airport developments or changes. - Recognition of the Government targets on sustainability and carbon neutral. - National planning of specialist services for example thrombectomy and major trauma. The aims of the procurement are to deliver an innovative, sustainable, resilient and value for money air ambulance service that can respond to changes in service delivery requirements whilst maintaining a high quality care and experience for the patients and public of Scotland. The future contract is expected to encompass the following elements including but not limited to: 1.The aircraft fleet must be capable of reaching all of Scotland's population. The rotary aircraft must have 24/7 Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) capability and all aircraft must act as a suitable transport platform for the personnel and equipment associated with our adult, paediatric and neonatal critical care transport and retrieval teams (ScotSTAR). 2. Provision of aircraft hangarage in order to ensure 24/7 availability of aircraft during inclement weather. 3. Provision of maintenance & backup. All planned and reactive maintenance must be carried out in Scotland. Backup aircraft to be provided to the same specification as core aircraft. 4. Provision of 24/7 engineering support. 5. Provision of adequate base facilities for clinical staff. e.g., provision of Ops Room space, lockers and parking facilities etc., In addition, meeting room/training room and overnight accommodation (where necessary) for on-call clinical staff. 6. Provision of air crew member training (e.g., Technical Crew Member training for HEMS). 7.Provision of compliant radio communications system. The aircraft must be capable of compliance with the current Airwave communications system (if this is still in operation at contract commencement), and also compliance with the future Emergency Services Network (ESN) system 8. Provision of on-going monitoring of service provision by way of regular contract monitoring meetings. 9. The Service will provide the clinical staffing. The aircraft, flight crew (pilots), estate & facilities and engineering support will be provided by the successful contractor(s) on a managed service basis. 10. The successful contractor(s) shall support a variety of air ambulance missions; ranging from hospital discharges through to pre-hospital helicopter emergency calls and critical care transfers.

Renewal: optional three year extension (7+3)

## Key Details

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication source | Public Contracts Scotland |
| Latest notice | https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/search/show/search_view.aspx?ID=DEC466564 |
| Notice type | OJEU - F3 - Contract Award Notice |
| Procurement type | Standard |
| Procurement category | Services |
| Procurement method | Selective |
| Procurement method details | Competitive dialogue |
| Tender suitability | Not specified |
| Awardee scale | Not specified |
| All stages | Tender, Award |

## Dates

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication date | 9 Dec 2022 |
| Submission deadline | 17 Aug 2022 |
| Future notice date | Not specified |
| Award date | 9 Dec 2022 |
| Contract period | Not specified |
| Recurrence | Contract is for 7 years with a possible 3 years extension. |

## Values

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

## Status

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender status | Unsuccessful |
| Lots status | Unsuccessful |
| Awards status | Unsuccessful |
| Contracts status | Not specified |

## Buyer

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Main buyer | SCOTTISH AMBULANCE SERVICE |
| Locality | EDINBURGH |
| Post town | Edinburgh |
| Postcode | EH12 9EB |
| Country | Scotland |
| ITL 1 | TLM Scotland |
| ITL 2 | TLM1 East Central Scotland |
| ITL 3 | TLM13 City of Edinburgh |
| Local authority | City of Edinburgh |
| Electoral ward | Drum Brae/Gyle |
| Westminster constituency | Edinburgh South West |
| Delivery location | TLM Scotland |

## CPV Codes

### Divisions

- 34 - Transport equipment and auxiliary products to transportation
- 35 - Security, fire-fighting, police and defence equipment
- 60 - Transport services (excl. Waste transport)

### Codes

- 34700000 - Aircraft and spacecraft
- 34710000 - Helicopters, aeroplanes, spacecraft and other powered aircraft
- 34711110 - Fixed-wing aircrafts
- 34711300 - Piloted aircraft
- 34711400 - Special-purpose aircraft
- 35112000 - Rescue and emergency equipment
- 35612500 - Search and rescue helicopters
- 35613000 - Unmanned aerial vehicles
- 60424110 - Hire of fixed-wing aircraft with crew
- 60424120 - Hire of helicopters with crew
- 60440000 - Aerial and related services
- 60443000 - Air-rescue services

## Release History

- 9 Dec 2022 at 00:00 - Award - OJEU - F3 - Contract Award Notice - https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/search/show/search_view.aspx?ID=DEC466564
- 28 Jul 2022 at 00:00 - TenderUpdate - OJEU - F14 - Corrigendum - https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/search/show/search_view.aspx?ID=JUL454915
- 19 Jul 2022 at 00:00 - Tender - OJEU - F2 - Contract Notice - https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/search/show/search_view.aspx?ID=JUL454212

## Documents

- https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/NoticeDownload/DownloadDocument.aspx?id=JUL454212&idx=4
  18th August 2022 - How many missions were flown each month of the year (for helicopter and airplane, individually)?
- https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/NoticeDownload/DownloadDocument.aspx?id=JUL454212&idx=1
  19th July 2022 - SAS/2022/639 SPD Bidder Instruction Document
- https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/NoticeDownload/DownloadDocument.aspx?id=JUL454212&idx=2
  19th July 2022 - SAS/2022/639 SPD (to be completed by Bidder)
- https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/NoticeDownload/DownloadDocument.aspx?id=JUL454212&idx=3
  19th July 2022 - SAS/2022/639 Outline Statement of Requirements
- https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/search/show/search_view.aspx?ID=JUL454212
  National Air Ambulance Service for The Scottish Ambulance Service - The procurement of a national air ambulance service for the Scottish Ambulance Service.
- https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/search/show/search_view.aspx?ID=DEC466564
  National Air Ambulance Service for The Scottish Ambulance Service - The procurement of a national air ambulance service for the Scottish Ambulance Service.

## Notice URLs

- http://
- http://www.scottishambulance.com
- https://api.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/v1/Notice?id=ocds-r6ebe6-0000700400
- https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/Search/Search_MainPage.aspx

## 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-r6ebe6-0000700400. The underlying structured data is available as OCDS JSON at https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-r6ebe6-0000700400.json.