NHS Shared Business Services is developing a major new framework for clinical managed services and medical equipment maintenance. Worth an estimated £725 million, it could create significant opportunities for suppliers that combine equipment, technical expertise, clinical support and long-term service management.
The procurement is currently at the preliminary market engagement stage, so the final lots and tender requirements have not yet been confirmed. Suppliers can use this period to influence the framework’s design, assess where their services fit and begin organising the detailed evidence likely to be needed once the competition opens.
The opportunity at a glance
The NHS SBS Clinical Managed Services and Managed Maintenance Services opportunity is intended to replace the existing NHS SBS Clinical Managed Services Framework Agreement.
| Framework detail | Current information |
| Framework owner | NHS Shared Business Services |
| Reference | SBS10543 |
| Current stage | Preliminary market engagement |
| Estimated value | £725 million excluding VAT |
| Engagement deadline | 18 August 2026 |
| Expected framework period | 17 May 2028 to 16 May 2032 |
| Planned duration | Four years |
| Coverage | UK, Guernsey, Isle of Man and Jersey |
| Main service areas | Clinical managed services and managed maintenance |
The value represents estimated expenditure across the framework. It is not a guaranteed level of revenue for an individual supplier, even if that organisation is eventually appointed.
NHS SBS is using the engagement exercise to test its proposed scope and gather information from potential suppliers before finalising the formal procurement.
What does preliminary market engagement involve?
Preliminary market engagement gives NHS SBS an opportunity to understand current market capability and ensure the eventual framework reflects how suppliers can realistically deliver these services.
The process may help NHS SBS:
- Refine the framework and lot structure
- Understand emerging clinical technologies
- Test potential commercial models
- Set proportionate participation requirements
- Identify practical mobilisation timescales
- Understand national and regional delivery capacity
- Consider how SMEs and specialist providers can participate
- Explore equipment refresh and maintenance models
Responding to the engagement exercise is not the same as submitting a tender. It does not guarantee a place on the future framework or give a supplier an automatic advantage when bids are evaluated.
It can still be valuable. Suppliers have an opportunity to explain where requirements may be too broad, where separate lots could improve competition and which commercial models are sustainable.
Responses should be practical and evidence-led. This is not simply an opportunity to promote a product or send a standard corporate brochure.
What is a clinical managed service?
A clinical managed service combines several elements of healthcare delivery within one long-term operating model.
Depending on the clinical area, this could include:
- Medical devices and equipment
- Consumables
- Equipment maintenance
- Asset financing or replacement
- Technical support
- Software and data systems
- Staff training
- Clinical or technical personnel
- Performance management
- Technology refresh arrangements
The existing NHS SBS Clinical Managed Services Framework describes services that may combine products, maintenance, supporting services and staff to operate equipment. The aim is to improve efficiency, increase patient capacity and support better outcomes.
Potential service areas identified for the replacement framework include pathology, diagnostic imaging, interventional radiology, cardiology, radiotherapy, endoscopy, renal services, operating theatres and wider clinical departments.
A supplier might therefore provide more than a scanner, laboratory system or theatre device. It may take responsibility for ensuring the equipment remains available, appropriately staffed, maintained and capable of supporting the required clinical activity.
How is managed maintenance different?
Managed maintenance focuses more specifically on the servicing and lifecycle management of medical equipment.
At one end of the proposed scope, a supplier may maintain equipment produced by a particular manufacturer. At the other, it could operate a fully outsourced electrical and biomedical engineering service across a mixed medical-device estate.
This may include:
- Planned preventative maintenance
- Reactive repairs
- Calibration
- Safety testing
- Asset-register management
- Equipment condition surveys
- Spare-parts management
- Recall and alert management
- Replacement planning
- Technical reporting
- Decommissioning and disposal
Suppliers unfamiliar with expressions such as EBME, call-off contract or further competition can use our bid terminology glossary when reviewing the procurement documents.
A medical equipment manufacturer and a multi-vendor maintenance provider may both be relevant to the framework, but their delivery models and evidence will look different. Suppliers should explain precisely which equipment, manufacturers, clinical environments and service levels they can support.
Who should consider engaging?
The opportunity could be relevant to:
- Clinical managed service providers
- Medical-device manufacturers
- Diagnostic imaging suppliers
- Pathology and laboratory businesses
- Cardiology and interventional technology providers
- Endoscopy and decontamination specialists
- Renal and dialysis suppliers
- Operating-theatre equipment providers
- Medical engineering businesses
- Multi-vendor maintenance companies
- EBME service providers
- Equipment-finance and lifecycle specialists
NHS SBS operates across a wide range of healthcare framework categories. Before investing in the process, suppliers should confirm that this planned framework is the right route for their complete service offer.
A business selling equipment without maintenance or service-management capability may need a delivery partner. Conversely, a maintenance specialist may need relationships with manufacturers, clinical providers or equipment-finance organisations to offer a complete managed service.
What should suppliers address during engagement?
Strong market engagement responses should help NHS SBS understand what the market can deliver and where the planned procurement may require adjustment.
Scope and service boundaries
Does the description accurately reflect the clinical areas, equipment and support available?
Clarify whether your organisation provides equipment, clinical staffing, technical personnel, maintenance, software, finance or a combination of services. Avoid using “managed service” as a broad label without defining what is included.
Lot structure
Consider whether very broad lots could prevent specialist suppliers from competing. Would separate clinical, equipment or maintenance categories create a more effective route to market?
Explain the effect of any proposed change. NHS SBS will need to understand how it could improve competition, delivery or buyer choice.
Geographic coverage
State where you can deliver directly and where partners would be required.
A claim of UK-wide coverage should be supported by information about engineer locations, clinical teams, response arrangements, spare-parts access and remote support.
Commercial models
Managed services can use different pricing approaches, including fixed charges, activity-based payments, leasing, equipment finance, maintenance fees or blended models.
Explain which approaches are practical for your service and how they could provide transparency for NHS buyers.
Mobilisation
Clinical managed services can require equipment surveys, data migration, workforce transfer, training and integration with NHS systems.
Provide realistic timescales and dependencies. An ambitious mobilisation date will not be useful if it cannot be achieved without risking service continuity.
What may NHS evaluators look for?
The final evaluation questions and weightings have not yet been published. However, the nature of the services points towards several areas that suppliers should prepare to address.
Our guidance on what NHS evaluators look for explains why technical capability must be supported by clear controls, relevant evidence and measurable outcomes.
Clinical governance and patient safety
Where a supplier provides a clinical service or personnel, the response may need to demonstrate:
- Named clinical accountability
- Professional registration
- Competency assessment
- Clinical supervision
- Incident reporting
- Risk management
- Escalation
- Audit
- Learning and improvement
Do not rely on a corporate clinical governance policy alone. Explain how the controls will operate within each call-off contract and how they connect with the NHS organisation’s governance arrangements.
Equipment uptime and resilience
Medical equipment failure can delay treatment, reduce capacity and create patient-safety risks.
Potential evidence might include:
- Planned maintenance completion
- Equipment uptime
- Engineer response and resolution times
- First-time repair rates
- Replacement equipment
- Spare-parts availability
- Remote diagnostics
- Out-of-hours support
- Performance during previous disruptions
A strong answer distinguishes between preventing failure and restoring service when disruption occurs.
Medical-device management
The MHRA’s guidance on managing medical devices covers the acquisition, use, maintenance, repair and disposal of reusable equipment.
Suppliers may need to explain how they will manage:
- Accurate asset registers
- Maintenance and calibration records
- Manufacturer alerts and recalls
- Decontamination
- Staff training
- Adverse incident reporting
- Equipment condition
- Replacement planning
- Decommissioning and disposal
Responsibilities must be clear, particularly where the NHS organisation, manufacturer, maintenance provider and managed-service lead all contribute to the equipment lifecycle.
Mobilisation and transition
A credible mobilisation approach could cover:
- Governance and mobilisation leadership
- Existing asset validation
- Condition and risk assessments
- Workforce and partner onboarding
- Data and system integration
- Equipment installation or transfer
- Training and competency checks
- Service continuity arrangements
- Initial performance baselines
- Handover into business-as-usual delivery
Generic implementation plans are unlikely to be enough. Evaluators will want to see dependencies, responsibilities and controls tailored to healthcare environments.
Workforce capacity and competence
Suppliers should be ready to demonstrate that suitably trained personnel will be available throughout the contract.
This might involve clinical professionals, field-service engineers, medical engineering teams, trainers, project managers, data specialists and contract-management staff.
Responses should cover recruitment, retention, skills maintenance, succession planning and contingency arrangements. Where delivery partners are used, explain how their competence and performance will be controlled.
Data and performance reporting
A managed service needs measurable outcomes.
Depending on the service, relevant measures could include:
- Equipment availability
- Planned maintenance completion
- Fault response and resolution
- Repeat equipment failures
- Clinical activity
- Patient throughput
- Waiting-time improvements
- Staff training compliance
- User satisfaction
- Cost and efficiency improvements
Do not simply provide a list of possible KPIs. Explain the data source, reporting frequency, validation process and corrective action when performance falls below target.
Show that you offer a managed service
One of the main bid challenges will be demonstrating that the different parts of the solution operate as one service.
A product-focused answer may describe equipment specifications, warranties and technical features. A managed-service response must go further.
It should explain:
- Who carries overall accountability
- How equipment and personnel work together
- How maintenance supports clinical availability
- How demand and capacity will be managed
- How service performance will be measured
- How technology will be refreshed
- How risks will be shared and controlled
- How the service will improve over time
The submission should not read like separate sections provided by a manufacturer, maintenance business, finance provider and clinical partner.
Agree the operating model first. Then make sure every contributor uses the same responsibilities, service assumptions and performance commitments.
What evidence should suppliers prepare?
Start building an evidence pack before the formal competition begins.
For relevant contracts, record:
- The healthcare client
- Clinical area
- Equipment and service scope
- Contract value and duration
- Number of sites
- Assets managed
- Patient or activity volumes
- Maintenance and uptime results
- Mobilisation performance
- Efficiency improvements
- Reference details
Review technical and regulatory information, including quality-management certification, product conformity, medical-device registration, clinical registrations, engineer qualifications, cyber security, information governance and business continuity.
You should also prepare operational material covering governance, asset management, maintenance workflows, escalation, training, supply-chain resilience and performance reporting.
Avoid relying on policy names and accreditations alone. Buyers need to understand how your controls work and what they have achieved on comparable services.
Prepare before the tender opens
Suppliers can take several practical steps now:
- Respond to the engagement exercise before 18 August 2026.
- Map your services against the proposed scope.
- Identify any manufacturers, clinical teams or maintenance partners required.
- Check registrations, certifications and competency records.
- Build case studies with measurable healthcare outcomes.
- Document your mobilisation and transition process.
- Review the commercial models your organisation can support.
- Monitor the opportunity for the formal tender notice.
Framework appointment will not guarantee work. Successful suppliers may later need to respond to further competitions, develop site-specific service models and provide tailored mobilisation plans.
Your preparation should therefore cover both the initial framework submission and your organisation’s ability to pursue opportunities after appointment.
Prepare for the NHS SBS managed services framework
The proposed framework could create major opportunities for suppliers able to combine equipment, technical support and reliable clinical delivery. It will also demand detailed evidence across patient safety, asset management, mobilisation, resilience and performance.
Bidding provides specialist bid writing for healthcare tenders, helping clinical, equipment and maintenance providers turn complex operating models into clear, scoreable submissions.
Speak to Bidding about preparing for the NHS SBS Clinical Managed Services and Managed Maintenance Services Framework.
