Daily Insight: Mega contract, mega dispute

The High Court has become the venue of a dispute over a truly huge contract to supply managed pathology services to three acute trusts in Yorkshire.

The Collaborative Pathology Managed Service Contract would serve Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust, Calderdale and Huddersfield Foundation Trust and Mid Yorkshire Hospitals Trust. It was priced in the original tender documents at £475m, spanning 14 years.

But the decision by the trusts – known collectively as the Collaborative – to award the contract in February this year to Siemens has been challenged in court by Abbott Laboratories. It has accused the Collaborative of breaking procurement rules, having “unlawfully invited and permitted” Siemens to “significantly change” the price it had included during a competitive tender exercise.

The Collaborative denied it broke the rules. While it acknowledged both firms were asked to clarify their bids, to correct errors in how they had priced their respective submissions, it denied it “invited and permitted Siemens to make significant changes to the pricing submission”.

In fact it pointed out Abbott’s overall score relative to that of Siemens had increased after the clarification exercise.

The case continues.

Methods under the microscope

A fresh investigation has begun into how a teaching trust handles professional standards and disciplinary cases, including alleged targeting of doctors with regulatory referrals, HSJ has learned.

University Hospitals Birmingham has been beset by controversy over its treatment of medics over recent months, with BBC’s Newsnight reporting that a significant number of referrals to the General Medical Council had led to no action, alongside claims whistleblowing doctors were “being bullied… by the threat of referrals to the GMC”.

The issue had been examined by an external review of UHB published in March which found there was “nothing exceptional” about the referral numbers or types at UHB, or their outcomes.

However, it did identify serious concerns among medics who told investigators about “dysfunctional processes for maintaining higher professional standards”, and “expressed a perception that there was a rather rapid process to escalate to a GMC referral”.

Now, HSJ understands that the earlier report’s author Mike Bewick has begun fresh work collecting feedback on the trust’s management of professional standards investigations. Referrals and re-referrals of staff to the GMC are also being looked at.

Results of two ongoing reviews are expected this summer, with a follow-up report expected to summarise key themes.