Third Party Logistics Provision for Covid-19 Medicines

2. Justification

The Covid-19 pandemic response gave rise to an urgent need for the authority to create a stockpile of medicines suitable for use within intensive treatment unit and end of life environments based on the usage experiences during wave one and the subsequent (second) wave) of the virus. The authority needed to be in a position to treat the population as required in the event of the Covid-19 outbreak escalating suddenly. Due to the unpredictability of the virus, the authority did not have sufficient time to comply with the standard open procedure time scales for this procurement. The authority considered this to be a state of urgency which it had duly substantiated. Accordingly, the authority used accelerated time limits as permitted under the Public Contract Regulations 2015 (Regulation 27(5) for the Open Procedure) in respect of this procurement