The Provision of Sacral Nerve Implants

Beaumont Hospital intends to enter into an agreement for the provision and support of Sacral Nerve Implants supplied by Medtronic. For clinical reasons, and in order to ensure optimum treatment outcomes on behalf of its patient cohort, Beaumont Hospital requires these Sacral Nerve Implants. Beaumont Hospital currently use the Medtronic system for sacral nerve stimulation (SNS) and have been offering this procedure to patients with overactive bladder syndrome (OAB) and voiding dysfunction for the last number of years. Beaumont Hospital Consultants are the only Urologists in Ireland offering this treatment modality to public patients, thus we receive referrals from all other Urology centres in The Republic of Ireland. It is a third line treatment, and has an efficacy rate of >85% in patients who have failed all other treatments for OAB. Previously Medtronic is the only company that have ever supplied devices for sacral nerve stimulation and because of this it is the system that Beaumont Clinicians have been trained on. Medtronic covers intraoperative programming when required. Beaumont Hospital are confident that Medtronic is the only company which offers sacral nerve stimulation that has a representative based in Ireland which ensures that support can be on site in a very short space of time. The permanent battery used in the Medtronic systems tends to last > 10years, which is an improvement on other systems that are rechargeable which can be a burden on patients. Patients tend to prefer a battery that needs to be replaced every 10 years vs ones that need to be charged on a regular basis. Consequently, in accordance with Article 32(2) (b) (ii) of Directive 2014/24/EU, competition is absent for technical reasons and the award of this contract to Medtronic without a competitive process is permitted by the procurement regulations. Beaumont Hospital undertake that no contract shall be awarded to Medtronic for the supply of these items until a period of fourteen days has elapsed, commencing on the day after the date of publication of this notice at European level.