NHS Blood and Transplant is committing £68 million to advancing its assessment and recovery (ARCs) programme through four separate procurements, seeking to increase organ utilisation and adoption of machine perfusion technology.
£20 million will be awarded to up to three clinical delivery partners to act as centres of excellence and conduct preservation and assessment activities as part of a national service. £30 million is assigned for machine perfusion technology services, and £5 million is indicated for transportable organ storage solutions.
A further £10 million is reserved for digital delivery partners to help keep services compliant with relevant standards, and to support the delivery of the national ARCs model.
An initial programme launch engagement session is planned to cover all four procurements on 28 July, with separate market engagement activities to follow. Procurements themselves are expected to be phased, according to NHSBT.
“NHSBT anticipates undertaking separate procurement processes for the four elements described in this notice,” it states. “The final procurement route, contract models and commercial structure for each element will be informed by the outcome of preliminary market engagement.”
The engagement deadline is set for 27 July 2026, with plans to publish a tender notice around November 2026. Estimated contract dates are given as April 2027 to March 2032, with a possible extension to March 2034.
Last month, NHSBT awarded a contract worth £342,000 to London-based Caci Limited for the provision of a geographic information system solution and geodemographic data. Caci Limited will supply the GIS system under the contract, along with associated geodemographic datasets to support donor insight, mapping, catchment analysis, and reporting across NHS Blood and Transplant services.
Wider trend: Health tech procurement
A pipeline notice from NHS England has indicated an upcoming opportunity with a value of up to £40 million for support capabilities relating to NHS Digital Citizen, covering products and services including the NHS App, NHS Proxy, and NHS.uk. The main focuses of the contract will be providing support capability for NHS Proxy and National Digital Channels User Insight, NHSE states, with additional work across other Digital Citizen products also potentially required during the contract span.
A national funding opportunity with £15 million to £20 million allocated for referrals and appointments has opened. The Referrals and Appointments funding, aims to “drive adoption, impact and value of the Booking and Referral Standard, the NHS e-Referral Service (e-RS) and NHS App referral and appointment management (Wayfinder) in 2026/27”, NHS England noted. In a post on LinkedIn, NHSE assistant director Mark Marshall announced that the 2026/27 National Funding Offers for referrals and appointments are now live, with up to £20 million available for NHS providers to “go further” with the NHS App and e-RS.
Croydon Health Services NHS Trust has awarded a five month contract with a value of £379,743 for support with its implementation of ambient voice technology across multiple departments. The contract, starting on 20 May and due to end on 31 October 2026, has been awarded to Keystream Group Limited. According to the contract award notice, Keystream Group Limited will be supporting the trust with its deployment of the Lyrebird Health AVT solution across ED, UTC, and OPD, to include EPR integration to enhance clinical workflows.
