We are a large organisation providing care for over half a million people across Northumberland and North Tyneside, in our ten hospitals, in the community and in people’s homes.

If you’re interested in working with us and becoming one of our suppliers please read the following information and download the relevant documents.

Note: You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader installed to view PDF files. If you do not have it you can download it here for free. If you do not have Microsoft Word to view .doc files, you can download the free Word Viewer. (External links open in a new window.)

Quick links

• What is procurement?
• Benefits of dealing with the Trust
• Rules and Regulations
• How we do business
• Current contract opportunities
• Tips if you want to submit a tender 
• Useful websites

What is procurement?

Procurement is the process of acquiring goods, works and services, covering both acquisitions from third parties and from in-house providers. 

Procurement includes the negotiation of corporate contracts from the supply of routine goods and services through to the more complex partnership arrangements such as private/public partnerships, joint commissioning with another public sector organisation and construction projects.

The procurement process spans the whole process from identification of needs, through to the end of the service contract or the end of the useful life of an asset. In the context of a procurement process, obtaining best value for money means choosing the bid that offers the optimum combination of whole life costs and benefits to meet the customer's requirement.

Benefits of dealing with the Trust

The main benefits of dealing with the Trust is that we have to be fair, non-discriminatory, honest and professional in the way we award contracts and choose suppliers and in any dealings we have with them. We pay promptly in line with national standards and agreed contract terms. 

Rules and Regulations

NHS procurement is not only governed by procurement regulations at a European and national level but also a local level via our Standard Financial Instructions. These state that quotations are required for procurements of up to £50,000 and tenders are required above this level. 

We operate to certain rules including meeting best value, being consistent, operate in a transparent way, ensure fairness in awarding public contracts and comply with all legal requirements.    

How we do business

We use an electronic Tendering system for all tenders and quotations. To be able to express your interest for a particular tender you must register your organisation on the NEP eu-supply e-Tendering system

• Download our Portal Registration guide (PDF, 238Kb) which may help you with this process.

Business discussions

We have introduced the Supplier Representative Interface Policy, to provide support and guidance to both healthcare professionals within our Trust and external (non pharmaceutical) supplier representatives when working together. 

The policy also provides a framework for (non pharmaceutical) supplier representatives on the standards of behaviour expected whilst engaging with the Trust and its employees. 

It is important that we provide a transparent process to develop and maintain a structured, professional relationship with our external suppliers and their representatives. The policy does not restrict any communications regarding current contracts between us and our current contracted suppliers. 

Suppliers representatives who wish to discuss their business (products, promotions, commercial propositions, innovative working & trials etc) with us must initially download and complete the Access Approval Form (Word .doc file, 61Kb) and email it to

Current contract opportunities

We advertise any contract opportunities will be advertised on this website and we use an electronic tendering system for all tenders and quotations.    

All interested suppliers must register with the NEP eu-supply e-Tendering system to be able to participate in the contract opportunities. 

• You may find this Portal Registration guide (PDF, 238Kb) useful.

Tips if you want to submit a tender

Make your tender easy for us to evaluate: 

• If the tender asks specific questions, cross reference the question number in your response for example by using a heading such as ‘Response to Question 1.1'.
• If you submit any documentation (for example a health and safety policy), include the question number on the enclosure.
• Minimise the number of enclosures you provide and if providing electronic documents use Word, Excel and PDF formats only.
• When providing electronic date the file name should reflect the content of the file. ‘Team CVs' or ‘Health and Safety policy' is better than a reference number which is meaningless to the evaluation team.
• Read the tender documents carefully and note the return instructions. If there is a deadline for submitting your tender system and you submit after the advertised deadline, it will be rejected. Try to submit your tender in the week before the deadline - don't leave it until the last minute.
• Ensure that the tender is presented professionally and always keep a copy of your tender.
• Provide specific examples for any statements you make. For example if a tender asks for your experience in a certain area, stating ‘we have a 5 year contract which started 1 January 2005 for the provision of fresh produce with XXX  Foundation Trust worth £100,000 per annum' is better than ‘we have extensive public sector experience'.
• Ensure that you tailor your tender submission to the actual tender - generic submissions or submissions made up of your company's promotional leaflets will not score good marks. Tailor the tender submission to the evaluation criteria stated in the tender documents.
• Set aside enough time to compile your tender submission and remember that it will probably require input from many business units within your company for example sales, finance, health and safety.
• State any assumptions you have made when completing your pricing schedule. Complete the pricing schedule exactly as in the documents provided.
• Ensure that you complete all sections of the tender documents and check that you have made all enclosures.
• Note the deadline for submitting queries and contact the relevant procurement officer in good time via email. If you are unsure of any aspect of the tender documents, or can't provide all the information requested, ask for advice.

Useful websites

You may find the following websites useful:

• sid4health - NHS supplier information database
• TED - Tenders Electronic Daily 
• Business Link - Business support, information and advice
• OGC - Office of Government Commerce archived information
• NHS Supply Chain
• Supply2Gov
• NECC - North East Chamber of Commerce 
• FSB - Federation of Small Businesses 
• BIS - UK Dept for Business, Innovation and Skills
• Go-Tenders - Procurement advice service