Provision of Sourcing of Short-term and Temporary Locum General Practitioners (GPs) for the Health Sector in Ireland.

The Health Service Executive is inviting qualified employment agencies to provide a sourcing service for short‑term and temporary locum general practitioners (GPs) to support the General Medical Services (GMS) network in rural Ireland. The objective is to secure reliable cover for up to 250 GMS GPs who receive the rural practice allowance, allowing them to take planned leave while ensuring continuous, high‑quality care for their patients. Most leave requests will span one to two weeks, with a maximum cumulative period of five weeks, so the service must be able to respond quickly and flexibly to these timeframes.

The procurement seeks a streamlined, specialist sourcing solution that can efficiently match locum GPs to the specific needs of rural and remote practices, thereby addressing a critical coverage gap highlighted in the 2023 GP Agreement. The agency must be able to manage the entire recruitment and placement process, maintaining high standards of professionalism and compliance with the unique requirements of rural medical services. The contract will run for an initial 36‑month period, with the possibility of optional extensions, and will be awarded to the four highest‑scoring tenderers in an open‑style process governed by Annex XIV of the EU procurement directives.

To qualify, agencies must meet the performance criteria outlined in the tender documents and demonstrate compliance with the 2023 GP Agreement and the rural practice allowance eligibility rules.

The Health Service Executive seeks to appoint suitably qualified employment agencies to source short-term locum General Practitioners (GPs) for General Medical Services (GMS) GPs working in rural Ireland. The purpose of this tender is to support access to locum cover for up to 250 GMS General Practitioners (GPs) in rural and remote areas, who are in receipt of the Rural Practice allowance. GPs in rural and remote areas must be able to access reliable locum cover to allow them take leave knowing that their patients will continue to receive high-quality care in their absence. This scheme, developed under the terms of the 2023 GP Agreement, addresses a critical need for rural GPs who often face significant challenges in securing cover for periods of planned leave. It is envisaged that most leave requests will be for 1 to 2 week leave periods. The maximum leave duration that will be requested is a block of 5 weeks in total. Under this scheme, eligible GPs in receipt of rural practice support will have access to a streamlined locum sourcing service. The service is currently provided by one employment agency under a non-compliant pilot programme set up by the National Contracts Office. This tender process is being conducted as an open-style tender under Annex XIV of Procurement directives 2014/24/EU. The required services are listed as Annex XIV services, and accordingly, only Articles 74 to 77 of Directive 2014/24/EC applies to the award of any contract(s) that arise from this process. As such, there is considerable flexibility in conducting the tender process and this is required given the specialist nature of the services required and the very limited market. Tenderers will be ranked and scored according to the Award Criteria stated. The four top ranked tenderers will be offered a contract. The estimated cost is €100k + VAT per year. The contract is for an initial 36-month period. At the end of this period the HSE can assess if the services being delivered are satisfactory or if the requirements of the scheme changes. There are 2 x 12-month optional extensions. The current focus is ensuring that a contract is in place in early 2027
Place of performance: IE061

Lot: LOT-0001
Title: Provision of Sourcing of Short-term and Temporary Locum General Practitioners (GPs) for the Health Sector in Ireland.