Healthcare, NHS and medical procurement in the UK is highly complex. A formal procurement process is utilised for most government and private sector contracts in the healthcare and medical sector. A quality bid or proposal is now almost a pre-requisite for winning any NHS, healthcare or other medical industry bid and most contracts are highly competitive. You need to score well on every question in order to gain a high overall score based on the weighting criteria that is generally adopted for most public sector contracts.
On the positive side, winning new contracts can help your business unlock growth and new revenue that is both substantial and stable. Our team of bid writing consultants here at Tsaks Consulting provide:
- Bid writing services focused on the healthcare industry.
- NHS (National Health Service) bid support, tender and bid management for healthcare bids
- Bid writing services for organisations looking to secure medical industry contracts.
Types of healthcare industry contracts in the UK we can help you win
Given the diverse range of services, products and projects within the UK healthcare and medical industry, there are a variety of tenders that arise which our team of experience health bid writing consultants in the UK will assist with. Some of these include:
- Hospital services bids: These contracts are usually for the provision of healthcare services inside hospitals. A lot of them are associated with the NHS although there are other bids. The types of services our writers have helped clients bid for include clinical services, diagnostics services and patient care. These services often extend to include aged care and nursing homes.
- Primary care services: These contracts, PPQs and bids are generally associated with providing general practitioner (GP) services, dental services and community healthcare. We have extensive experience helping our clients write and win dental services contracts. In addition, our medical contract bidding specialists have helped GPs bid for primary care GMS contracts to the NHS including for example the NHS Lothian. We work closely with GPs and doctors to guide them through the process, particularly when they have not had any experience bidding and need our help to submit the bid and secure the contract.
- Medical equipment and devices bids: There are many medical equipment and device tenders that cover a broad range of devices and medical equipment used in the healthcare industry in the UK. These include both NHS and private sector contracts and cover a broad range of products and services. For example, our NHS bid writers have written bids for the provision of radiology equipment, hospital bedding and medical equipment and devices such as syringes.
- Health Information Technology (HIT) bids: These contracts combing the IT and ICT contracts with the unique requirements and challenges of the health industry. More often than not, one of our bid writers who focuses specifically on IT bids and proposals will assist our clients with this tender. They bring a combination of IT and health sector experience which is generally needed for these types of bids. These range from software (such as practice management software) to the supply of computer, telephone and other equipment.
- Ambulance Services: Most of these contracts are for the provision of emergency medical services and patient transport services. These contracts can become more challenging when looking to win bids in regional areas. In our experience, it is important to focus on local knowledge as well as equipment and fleet management in order to secure patient transport services contracts.
- Healthcare construction and infrastructure tenders: Similarly to IT tenders, construction and infrastructure tenders are generally delivered by our bid writers who specialise in construction. Having said that, there are some considerations which need to be taken into account in the methodology that are specific to working in the hospital and healthcare space. For example, for maintenance contracts in healthcare, there are special considerations and safety precautions that need to be implemented when working in a live hospital environment as well as specific training for the trades and other personnel to ensure they comply with the licensing and other protocols of working in a live hospital. Dust management is also a key issue. For larger construction projects such as the construction of new medical centres and hospitals, the building process needs to take into considerations the unique requirements of healthcare buildings.
- Mental Health Services Bids: These bids are generally associated with mental health services such as counselling, therapy and psychiatric care. Within these three areas there are a broad range of sub areas depending on the specific demographic of patients who require that care. Over the years, our bid writing consultants have written a range of mental health services bids. We take the time to focus on your CVs, the depth of resources in your team, and the methodology and process of how you plan to deliver the services. It’s important to also demonstrate insight into the unique challenges faced in providing mental health services and provide solutions around how you will foresee and overcome them.
- Public Health Service: There was an increase in public health service tenders throughout the Covid outbreak, although contracts are consistently released. These include contracts for public health initiatives, disease prevention programs and some health promotion campaigns. Generally speaking, it’s not your typical health and medical companies who apply for these types of tenders. We have assisted PR and Communications firms as well as other boutique consultancies apply for a broad range of public health services contracts across the UK.
- Nursing and Care Services: Nursing and care services operators, including nursing agencies tender for a range of difference nursing and care services tenders. These often include the provision of home care, long-term care and other support services specifically tailored for the elderly or those with disabilities. We have helped nursing agencies as well as private providers bid for contracts with the NHS as well as other private organisations to provide care support services. The unique issues that face people with a disability are different to the elderly and other groups. Our bid writing consultants will help you tailor your bid to these specific groups so that you submission demonstrates your knowledge and resonates with the reader.
- Rehabilitation Services: There are different disciplines within the rehabilitation sphere. These include physiotherapy, occupational therapy and general rehabilitation programs. A long-term focus, as well as the ability to deliver real results is critical when writing rehabilitation services bids. You need to not only write a compelling bid that demonstrates your skillset and experience, but you need to present a detailed methodology and program about how you are going to consistently deliver the rehabilitation services over the full term of the contract to a high quality.
- Diagnostics and Pathology: A highly specialist area there are many contracts for the provision of diagnostics imaging services, pathology services and laboratory testing across the UK. From multinational operators and large national providers, to smaller firms looking to provide pathology services in some rural areas, our writing professionals have helped clients win services for contracts large and small. A focus on equipment and innovation including AI is only exceeded by operational details such as the proposed team for providing such services and the system and processes for managing and delivering diagnostics and pathology services. We also provide services for respiratory bids and contracts.
- Telemedicine and Telehealth: With the increase in technology and receptivity for remote and telehealth solutions amongst the general UK public, telemedicine and telehealth contracts have been increasing in volume over recent years. They are highly applicable in providing health services to remote locations. Examples of contracts including tenders for the development, implementation and operations of telehealth and telemedicine services as well as contracts with the NHS and other organisations to deliver remote and out of hours healthcare services.
- Medical Waste Management: More often than not, our generalist tender writers write waste management tenders. These include proposals and bids for waste management services in hospitals and medical centres. Medical waste has its own unique challenges and requirements. Innovative products are often useful to win bids and the service and implementation of the waste management contracts are also important. The procurement team want to know that you have a smooth and efficient operation for collecting waste. Our healthcare bid writing consultants take the time to demonstrate not only your product and services but also your ability to consistently service the contract for an extended period of time.
- NHS Workforce recruitment: There is a critical need for qualified healthcare professionals in the NHS. As a result, workforce recruitment tenders are often high in volume and also highly competitive. Service providers need to focus on recruitment methodologies, their talent pool and how they nurture it, diversity and inclusion and your ability to source candidates for in-demand roles. Having a presence in the local area and having built a pool of resources with which to retain talent is also critical to winning NHS workforce recruitment contracts.
- Integrated Community Health contracts: To win a integrated community health contract, you need to demonstrate that you will bridge the gap and ensure seamless collaboration and communication between healthcare entities to deliver a quality service. You also need to demonstrate that your proposed care model is patient-centred and that your organisation leverages on technology to optimise data sharing and collaboration.
- Supported living bids and contracts: These contracts have a strong focus on providing a personalised service. Given these services are provided to vulnerable members of the community, you must demonstrate robust quality assurance protocols that ensure you will provide high-quality services over the full term of the contract. When writing bids for supported living tenders for our clients we take the time to tailor the bid on the specific demographic that will be supported and demonstrate insight into their unique needs, as well as how our personalised care will address them. Demonstrating that tailored care plans will be put in place to increase their independence and overall quality of life is also critical.
- GP APMS (Alternative Provider Medical Services): These are often complex and challenging bids. You need to demonstrate a deep understanding of the local area and there local healthcare needs throughout your bid. The primary care solutions you propose need to be patient-centric and deliver real ease of accessibility for patients. In addition, your services have to align with the NHS’s values and ethos, and you need to demonstrate that you will excel in patient engagement.
- Dermatology: The provision of top-tier skincare and dermatology services is critical for the general population. We have helped dermatologists write and win contracts to provide services across the UK. It is important to demonstrate a focus on continuous education and your commitment to using innovative and cutting-edge treatment modalities. When bidding for larger contracts, you also need to show your depth of resources and the size of your practice and demonstrate how this puts you into a good position to deliver the contract.
- Sexual Health: These contracts cover services to address a broad range of sexual health challenges including education programs, prevention programs and treatment. When bidding for sexual health contracts, you need to demonstrate that your program or services have processes in place to maintain confidentiality and are inclusive. In addition, there are diverse community needs which need to be addressed.
How we can help you win NHS contracts
The National Health Services (NHS) forms the basis of the UKs healthcare system. It provides a wide range of services to the people of the UK. NHS contracts cover a broad spectrum of procurement needs. There are a large range of regulatory frameworks, policies and specific guidelines within the NHS. All of our specialist NHS bid writers have a comprehensive understanding of these frameworks. This helps us ensure that when we write a bid for you, it aligns with the NHS requirements and is in accordance with the NHS requirements.
We take a tailored approach to completing each bid or PQQ. Each NHS tender is generally different and similar at the same time. They are similar in terms of structure and frameworks, and different in terms of the information they request and require. You need to put forward a tailored submission that recognises the unique demands on each contract.
Your bid not only needs to comply, it must also demonstrate your strengths, capabilities and value propositions. You also need to provide evidence for everything you state in order to build credibility in the mind of the reader.
Services we provide include:
- Writing your bid or proposal from start to finish. We will work with you to gather the necessary information and write the response so you have time to focus on your day job. We will help you find the required supporting documentation or create it as necessary.
- Identify tender opportunities. Through our free service our team will send you suitable contract opportunities for your business in order to help you find opportunities.
- Develop graphics and infographics. This is a necessity for some tenders to even get a look in. You need to submit a well presented submission which looks polished and professional. Complex technical solutions can be turned into simple and easy to understand infographics.
Contact our team of bid writers to see how we can help with you next NHS, healthcare or medical industry tender. We have helped companies all over the UK including in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Bristol, Leeds and Nottingham.
Strategies and tips we recommend to help you win healthcare contracts
- Throughout your bid talk about and address the issues and challenges that are facing the healthcare sector. If it is a local area / regional contract, talk about both the specific challenges facing the local area and the nation more broadly. When you are writing your submission, make the link between your proposal and how your service will help address these challenges. For example, if you are submitting a bid to provide recruitment services for nurses, you may want to talk about any shortages in nursing staff and how you will deal with them.
- Clearly articulate how your proposal will lead to better patient experiences. You need to explain this from a care and outcome perspective. It is important to have this as a win theme throughout your bid. It may start to sound repetitive, however, for most bids, if you integrate improved patient experiences throughout the each of your responses, it will strengthen your bid and demonstrate that you will provide a patient centric service.
- A detailed methodology and transition plan. You need to demonstrate that your bid is well thought out and you will provide a seamless service. This requires planning and resource. It also requires you to submit detailed operational plans that span the entirety of the contract. For example, if you are submitting a bid to provide mental health care services for three years, you will need to show that you can deliver the services reliably as required, have a plan to recruit and retain the appropriate personnel and have thought through the demands and resources required to provide the care services with a resource allocation plan to meet these demands. This applies to administering the contract (reporting, invoicing etc) as well as actually providing the mental health services.
Who we service
Our clients include small GPs, dental providers, private community providers, a range of GP federations, NHS Trusts, recruitment and labour hire firms, hospital operators, medical equipment suppliers, hospitals and clinics offering specialist medical services, mental health services and psychiatric facilities, pharmaceutical and vaccine product suppliers and manufacturers, IT and software companies that specialise in health products ,facilities management companies, social care providers, pharmacies and many more businesses.
Client testimonials
Jason, Paula and the team at Tsaks Consulting in my view are one of the best bid writing consultancies in the healthcare and medical sector in the country. They run a professional operation and are responsive, transparent and efficient. They are also very good writers and they understand the framework, ITT and SQQ process. They will help you win – that’s all they are focused on and it’s all they think about really. They will help you strategise your bid to put you in a winning position. Finally, they know alot about the healthcare industry which was helpful for us as we didn’t have to explain and re-explain everything from a technical perspective they just kind of got it. I would recommend Tsaks Consulting to anyone that wants to secure an NHS tender or medical tender.
Julie B | GP Services Provider | London
Hi Jason and the rest of the Tsaks Consulting Team, Good news. We have been shortlisted and have been asked to present for that contract. This is fantastic and now we are in the game and in with a real chance. Thank you for all your help with this health services bid so far. Your guidance in bidding to the NHS has been absolutely outstanding and even though we have written bids ourselves in the past, we can really see the benefits your bid writing expertise and help brings with this tender. There were improvements all the way through it and the result demonstrates that. However, even if it wasn’t successful, I know we have really boosted the quality of our responses by engaging you. Thank you very much and now we need help with the presentation. I’ll send through the requirements shortly.
Joseph C | Medical and Allied Health Services Provider | Manchester
As a nursing and care services provider, bids and tenders are the main avenue for us to win work. We use Jason, Paula and the team at Tsaks Consulting UK in London to help guide us on the tender process and to help us win. We have always found them to be responsive, professional and experts at writing winning bids to the NHS and the medical industry in general. We rely on their guidance and support, and they always come through and deliver. Their fees are reasonable and they meet our deadlines. We would recommend them to anybody who is in the medical industry and is looking for bid and tender writing support to win frameworks, SSQs or ITTs.
Jana B | Nursing Provider | Leeds
Thank you Jason for your assistance with this bid. As usually, we are happy with your service and the support provided, and it’s nice to work with someone that knows and undertsands the NHS and the healthcare sector – particularly mental health. You and the team at Tsaks Consulting has been very helpful and approachable and we will let you know how we go with this one. Fingers crossed – we win it.
Ted V | Mental Health Service Provider | Glasgow
Our writing experts
Our bid writers that specialise in medical bids and tenders come from a medical background and spend at least 80% of their daily time writing medical and healthcare bids (mostly for NHS contracts). In addition we have a panel of specialist clinical advisors which we have established over the years who we lean on when necessary to provide highly technical content. This may be necessary if there is a specialist area which your in-house subject matter experts aren’t aware of.
All of our writers understand and have a working knowledge of both medical knowledge and terminology as well as the acronyms and terminology used and preferred by the NHS.