Bywest was evaluated as the best bidder

2.23  The contractors to the Bywest consortium consisted of Bouygues for construction and Ecovert for facilities management, part of the same group, which provided a unified approach to bidding. During the evaluation Bywest scored highest overall on quality (Figure 6). They were judged to have the strongest design in the key clinical areas and they were also deemed to have the best phasing and timetable for the scheme, ie. one which would cause the least disruption to the continued running of the hospital. Their apparent commitment to health and safety, training and quality assurance impressed the Trust and their human resources policy was considered better than that of their competitors16.

6

 

Non-financial assessment scores of the three bidders

 

 

The Figure shows the Trust's scores for each of the bids in each category other than bid price

 

 

Assessment category

Bywest

NewHealth

SUMMIT

 

 

Design and healthcare

252

241

225

 

 

Construction

57

49

49

 

 

Services approach

167

147

153

 

 

Human resources

66

50

50

 

 

Equipment

25

25

25

 

 

Overall impression

34

20

24

 

 

Grand total

601

532

526

 

 

Source: The Trust

2.24  The financial evaluation carried out by the Trust's financial advisers judged that the Bywest bid offered the best value for money (see Figure 7).

7

 

The comparison of bid prices at preferred bidder selection

 

 

The Figure shows that Bywest had the lowest estimated present value of unitary payments

 

 

 

Bywest £000

NewHealth £000

Summit £000

 

 

Net present value of the unitary payment discounted to 1/4/99

95,200

95,486

96,631

 

 

Source: The Trust, KPMG

The NPV of the final contract with Bywest is £123.8 million. (See Figure 8 for movements after Bywest became preferred bidder.)




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16  The Trust addressed employment issues before completing the PFI deal and had included the HR policy of the bidders as one of the non-financial assessment criteria. Many non-clinical services had already been contracted out and the staff had already been transferred to the private sector. Only 22 NHS staff were transferred to Bywest's service provider, Ecovert, as a result of the PFI.