Supply, Calibration & Maintenance of Temperature Loggers

NHSBT will process over 1 million blood donations per year into various blood components within specific timelines. Once processed, these components are stored in temperature-controlled storage facilities within the organisation’s 14 sites across England before being supplied to hospitals.

Specific storage temperatures are vital to the efficacy and integrity of blood components and are always adhered to within strict regulatory requirements. These temperatures vary from -40°C to +24°C with considerably lower temperatures within NHSBT’s sample storage and research facilities from -80°C down to -196°C.

Calibrated Temperature Monitoring Devices (CTMDs) are used to fully temperature map all of NHSBT’s temperature-controlled storage equipment on a routine basis according to the organisation’s detailed processes and within the Quality Management System to ensure they are all fit for purpose. These include walk in freezers, cold rooms, incubators, and temperature-controlled areas.

Calibration of the CTMDs is carried out on an annual basis according to the calibration points requested by NHSBT which will cover all of the temperature requirements noted above. Both calibration and maintenance services are carried out within strict turnaround times to ensure CTMDs are constantly available so that NHSBT can meet all of its temperature mapping requirements.

NHSBT would like to take this opportunity to engage the market in advance of a procurement process for supply, maintenance, and calibration of suitable CTMDs for the purpose of temperature mapping our temperature-controlled facilities.

This will enable NHSBT to gain an understanding of current developments and innovation for the provision of the CTMDs and associated software programs to determine what is available for supply, maintenance, and calibration services and to establish the level of market interest ahead of planned Supplier Engagement Days where products and services can be demonstrated.