The latest Referral to Treatment (RTT) figures for January 2025 show that the waiting list for treatments stood at 7.43 million cases, consisting of approximately 6.25 million individual patients waiting for treatment. To increase capacity and ease the pressure on elective surgery, the building and roll-out of surgical hubs is being scaled up across the country.
In these environments, surgical and clinical teams are reliant on the quick and efficient turnaround of reprocessed and sterilised instruments to operate and undertake procedures, work through the backlog, and reduce further pressure on clinical services.
The Decontamination Services and Solutions Framework Agreement offers end-to-end decontamination solutions, ensuring the effective decontamination of surgical instruments and equipment, which is essential for patient safety and to avoid delays and inefficiencies in hospital operating theatres.
The framework agreement supports best practice, compliance, and drives sustainability and cost-effectiveness. It offers complete outsourcing of decontamination services, the ability for extra capacity to be provided either in an emergency or for the long term, or the option to augment a customer’s own facilities. There is also a specialist lot for the decontamination of high-level probes.
Framework Agreement Information
The framework agreement covers the provision of outsourced decontamination and sterilisation of surgical instruments which can either be on site or off site and involves the cleaning, reprocessing, repair, and sterilisation of surgical instruments to support surgery and other activities. It ensures the effective decontamination of surgical instruments and equipment, which is essential for patient safety and to avoid delays and inefficiencies in hospital operating theatres. It also includes the provision of equipment for the reprocessing of high-level disinfection of probes.
What dates is the framework agreement active?
10 March 2023 – 9 March 2027
Who can take advantage of the framework agreement?
All NHS organisations across the UK
How was the framework agreement procured?
Further competition and direct award
Via this framework agreement, you can run a further competition, or choose to direct award to a supplier in compliance with Regulation 33 of the Public Contracts Regulations.
How we can support?
We offer different levels of support, including SME advice and robust templates for you to easily run your own process, or additional support to design and run a further competition on your behalf.
How can I access the framework agreement?
Access framework agreement documentation via our Customer Framework Agreement Portal (CFAP)
The framework agreement has been structured into the following lots:
What are the benefits of using this framework agreement?
FULL END-TO-END SERVICE
Provides a full end-to-end decontamination solution, ensuring the effective decontamination of surgical instruments and equipment to reduce the risk of infections for patients.
OFFERS COMPLETE OUTSOURCING
Offers complete outsourcing of decontamination services to free-up staff time and allows them to focus on core clinical services.
COVERS EMERGENCY READINESS
Provides a provision for emergency readiness so that extra capacity can be rapidly deployed during surges (e.g. pandemics, winter pressures, or equipment failures) to supplement in-house capabilities.
MANAGED SERVICE
Offers both on-site and off-site decontamination solutions; either as a managed service offering or contingency (in part or as a whole) ensuring that services are not interrupted and allowing greater flexibility all round. .
SUPPORTS SUSTAINABILITY GOALS
Supports NHS sustainability goals by covering the repair and replacement of surgical instruments.
MAINTAINS PATIENT SAFETY
Supports the quick, efficient turnaround of reprocessed and sterilised instruments to effectively clean and disinfect them, critical to prevention and spread of infection and maintaining patient safety.
Supplier Details
Find out what the press had to say about the framework agreement
Healthcare Design and Management
NHS launches £1.7bn decontamination procurement framework
IHEEM
£1.7 bn decontamination procurement framework launched
Facilitate Magazine
NHS SBS unveils £1.7bn decontamination framework
Strategic Procurement Support
If this framework agreement doesn’t cover the goods or services you require, or a framework agreement isn’t the optimal route to market for your needs, we can provide tailored strategic procurement support. Find out more here.
