USAID’s Advancing Universal Health Coverage (AUHC) Project

Scope of Work: SHN Equipment Procurement(local)
Date: January – February 2019
Duration: 25 non-continuous days; 10 prior to the international consultant’s arrival; 15 while s/he is in Bangladesh. Approximate time period: January – February 2019.

Project Description: As continuation of their support to Government of Bangladesh’s essential health service delivery towards ensuring Universal Health Coverage, USAID has awarded a new activity- USAID’s Advancing Universal Health Coverage (AUHC) to provide people of Bangladesh with high-quality primary care, while offering financial protection for those who cannot pay for services. Building on the strong brand recognition of Smiling Sun (Surjer Hashi) Clinics, the AUHC project will support a transition of the Smiling Sun (Surjer Hashi) clinics to a unified, sustainable, pro-poor social enterprise.  

Description of SHN: The Surjer Hashi Network (SHN) is a newly formed social enterprise that provides primary health services to poor and marginalized populations in Bangladesh through a network of 399 static clinics in 64 districts in Bangladesh. Approximately half of the 399 clinics operate in rural areas; the remaining provides services to urban and peri-urban populations. The range of services provided through SHN are family planning, child health and immunization services, limited curative care, Tuberculosis identification and treatment, antenatal and postnatal care, labor and delivery services.

There are three types of static clinics in the Surjer Hashi Network. Vital clinics are smaller clinics, in most cases staffed by paramedics. Services offered by Vital Clinics include, temporary family planning methods—pills, condoms, injectables. Some Vital Clinics can do IUD insertions. Vital clinics also do immunization, child health services, growth monitoring and nutrition counseling, limited curative care, which is essentially treatment for minor illnesses and injuries, ante and post natal care. Basic Emergency Obstetrical Care Centers – Basic (EMOC-B) are the next level up, they provide all the Vital Clinic services in in addition to normal vaginal deliveries. Most EMOC-B are staffed by physicians and have laboratory and diagnostic capacity. Emergency Obstetrical Care Centers – Comprehensive (EMOC-C) are the highest level of SHN clinic. EMOC-Cs provide all EMOC-B services in addition to having surgical capability to do cesarean sections. These facilities have the capacity to keep patients overnight; according to the local regulations these centers are supposed to have ten (10) beds. EMOC-Cs also operate 24 hours a day for labor and delivery services. In addition to the SHN static clinics, SHN provides service through 7,000 satellite clinics or “spots,” as well as over 10,000 community service providers (CSPs).

Problem Statement: To maintain and in many cases improve the quality of services provided SHN clinics it is critical to replace a lot of the clinical equipment, furniture and other fixtures in SHN static clinics. The focus of this scope of work is exclusively on the procurement of clinic equipment. Furniture and other clinic fixtures will be part of a separate clinic renovation activity that will be done by AUHC.
Goal and Activities: The goal of this scope of work is to procure and place equipment in SHN clinics. To achieve that, the consultant must accomplish the following activities:

  • Procurement Plan: The consultant will participate in the development of an SHN procurement plan. Once drafted, it will be presented to the SHN CEO for review and approval. The procurement plan has the following components:
  • Specifications for each piece of equipment: In many cases there are several different options of equipment available in Bangladesh. This is especially true with high value items such as ultra sound, X-ray and electrocardiogram machines. As such, it would be helpful if the plan could recommend several purchase options with clear advantage and disadvantages of each option. These could potentially center around prices, operability, warranty options, if at all and reparability.
  • Availability, delivery time and installation: In many cases vendors typically do not have a robust stock of equipment on hand. Again, this is often the case with high values equipment that presumably SHN would be purchasing in large quantities.
  • Source Origin: Because USAID funds will be used to purchase this equipment, AUHC contractual and USAID FAR requirements will govern this purchase.
  • Price and Payment terms: Things to consider in this area are the amount of a deposit required if at all; and the terms of the final payment.
  • Warranty and Repair: Keeping clinical equipment operational is a challenge in Bangladesh. Contributing to this problem is the fact that there are very few biomedical repair options available in Bangladesh, as result equipment is sold often without concrete repair options either within or outside of a manufacturer’s or retailers warrantees. It is important that this be considered at the time of solicitation, and that this be integrated into the decision-making process.

Key contribution to the procurement plan: As described above, the SHN procurement plan has five components. The consultant is expected to participate in development of all of them. However, the main and critical focus will be on the developing specifications for each piece of equipment. As stated above, using the SHN standard equipment list, the consultant will collect equipment specifications so that SHN can decide the type and brand of equipment they want to procure.

Solicitation and Award: The consultant will work with the international consultant and the SHN CEO and his team to determine a procurement approach.  Once that is decided, the consultant will work with the international consultant to develop solicitation documents and make the award.  

Specific Activities and Deliverables:

  • Equipment Specification List: As indicated above, the key function of this scope of work is to develop a list of specifications based on the SHN equipment list. The hope is that the consultant will provide a range of equipment within in each category, articulate the specifications as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each piece of equipment so that the SHN CEO can decide the specifications that will be included in the solicitation documents.

Deliverable: Equipment Specifications

Due date: Day 10

  • Solicitation and Award: The consultant is expected to work with the international consultant and the AUHC procurement team, who is doing this procurement on behalf of SHN, to lead the procurement process. This includes technical participation in the preparation of the solicitation documents and answering bidder’s questions.  

Deliverable: Final Award

Due dates:

  • Help release solicitation with techncial input - Day 5
  • Answer Bidders questions – Day 5
  • Participate in the review – Day 5

Application Instructions. Please submit your CV to: bangladeshauhc@gmail.com by November 26, 2018. Please make the subject of your email: “SHN Equipment Procurement  Consultant”. Candidates will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the positions are filled; early submission encouraged. No telephone inquiries please. Finalists will be contacted.

There are 399 clinics in the SHN network. Effective 1 January SHN will assume management control of the 374 of these clinics. There are 25 clinics that are in the Chattogram Hill Tracts (CHT). These clinics will fall under the SHN umbrella in that they will provide services under the SHN brand, however, they will be funded by a grant from AUHC. The other 374 clinics will be funded by an AUHC grant to SHN.