KMPT Portable Magnetic Resonance Imaging System (2025)

Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust (the "Trust") is expressing its intention to award a contract via a negotiated procedure without prior publication for the provision of a portable low-field (0.064 Tesla) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system. The contract will also include associated peripherals, training, support and maintenance services for a period of five (5) years.

Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust (the "Trust") is expressing its intention to award a contract via a negotiated procedure without prior publication for the provision of a portable low-field (0.064 Tesla) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system. The contract will also include associated peripherals, training, support and maintenance services for a period of five (5) years.

The MRI scanner will be used for the purpose of accelerating and developing local place-based neuroimaging research into the process of assessment and diagnosis of dementia, in which timely access to neuroimaging is frequently a rate-limiting step. The scanner will also be available for researchers addressing other mental health disorders, such as research aligned to the new Kent Complex Psychosis Service and investigation of non-dementia mental illness in older and younger adults.

A key focus will be to aid the development of new AI algorithms in the assessment of structural change in dementia and cognitive decline – to decrease the need for high field MRI brain assessment in specialist centres and avoid the associated restrictive environment.

In order to support the Trust's research objectives, the Trust's requires a system which fulfils the following requirements:

• Approved for commercial sale in the UK (UKCA marked);
• Small and highly portable design in order to fit through doorways and elevators, and to provide ease of manoeuvrability;
• Magnetic configuration to enable researchers to work safely with participants during testing;
• Ability to be powered through standard electrical outlets;
• Low power consumption to reduce running costs;
• Open design to reduce participant anxiety; and
• Controlled through portable user-friendly wireless device (e.g. tablet). Additional information: The Trust considers that the award of the contract without prior publication of a contract notice to be permitted by Part 2 of the Public Contract Regulations 2015.

The Trust is publishing this voluntary transparency notice to express its intention to enter into the contract.

The Trust shall not enter into the contract before the end of a period of at least 10 days beginning with the day after the date on which this notice was published. The date in section V.2.1 'Date of conclusion of the contract' is therefore not correct. The Trust anticipates that it will enter into a Contract with the Supplier in December 2024.

The Trust expressly reserves the right not to award any contract as a result of the publication of this notice.