Procurement and contracting

NHS Cheshire and Merseyside – an integrated care board – is responsible for commissioning healthcare services for our local population.

This includes commissioning or ‘buying’ healthcare services from a range of providers for our population and purchasing goods and services for NHS Cheshire and Merseyside itself.

Our commissioning ranges from small one-off purchases for goods or services, to large, complex, multi-service contracts with our local NHS Hospitals and independent providers.

NHS Cheshire and Merseyside is a statutory public body that was formed in July 2022 from the nine previous Cheshire and Merseyside Clinical Commissioning Groups. As such, all historic contracts have transferred to NHS Cheshire and Merseyside (circa 5,000 agreements) and we are now going through a period of transition and reviewing all of our contracts for goods and services across our geography, to ensure we can continue to meet the needs of our population.

Over time, the intention is that contracts held by the previous nine statutory bodies will be streamlined, where possible, where there is commonality of service or provider, to ensure consistent and equitable services for our patients and the NHS Cheshire and Merseyside corporate infrastructure.

As a public body, we are required to ensure value for money in our purchases and in doing so, must follow the requirements of The Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023 and The Procurement Act 2023.

These regulations ensure that we act in a fair, open and transparent manner when procuring goods and services. We must also adhere to our own internal Standing Orders and Standing Financial instructions, which ensure purchases are authorised in line with our Scheme of Reservation and Delegation and ensure we are cognisant of any potential or actual conflicts of interest.

When reviewing the best route to purchase goods and services, we will consider a range of options available:

  • Direct Awards
  • Variation of an existing contract, in line with the requirements of the Regulations
  • Open competitive procurement
  • Purchase from one of the national or local framework contracts available to us, either by directly awarding a contract to a single provider or through a ‘mini competition’ process.

In accordance with Regulation 25 of The Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023, a summary of our application of the regulations from 1 January 2024 to 31 March 2025 can be found here: 

Historical information regarding procurement decisions made between 1 July 2022 and 31 December 2023 can be found on the Procurement Decision Registers below.