Award notice following Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice - Pneumatic Tube System Maintenance and Partial Upgrade

The voluntary ex ante transparency (VEAT) notice acknowledges that St. Vincent's University Hospital proposes to put in place a ten (10) year Single Operator Framework with Advanced Pneumatic Technology Ltd. and award a contract with reference to Article 32(2)b(ii) of Directive 2014/24/EU. Specifically, competition is absent for technical reasons. The original legacy contract, established in 1992, has evolved to a customised system with many internal integrations which has grown as the hospital has expanded, providing in excess of 300,000 transports per annum. The current system is used by the hospital's Central Laboratory for receiving samples from clinical areas throughout the campus. In addition the Pharmacy Department use the PTS for receiving orders and distribution of some products. The system upgrade will consist of the design and supply of the partial replacement of the existing Aerocom Pneumatic Tube System. The proposed contract provides for a system upgrade with the cost of the upgrade to be borne by the contractor and recouped by equal quarterly payments over the duration of an initial five (5) year contract to include Comprehensive Service and the facility of a Call-Out Service with a one (1) hour response time; after which time the provision of a Comprehensive Maintenance Service and any additional upgrades required during the term of the Framework Agreement. The Framework Agreement will remain in place for a period of five (5) years after the initial contract, to a total of ten (10) years. Based on the extensive technical integrations and functionality and the bespoke development and implementation, the contracting authority proposes that any alternative or substitute presents sufficient technical challenges to constitute a disproportionate risk to the operation of the hospital. Specifically, the implementation of an alternative that addresses the number of integrations and interdependencies presents a technical resourcing challenge that would require partial or complete disintegration of the Aerocom Pneumatic Tube System.