CALL TO ACTION
To the leaders and legal counsel of the UK’s pharmaceutical, medical device, technology, and private healthcare provider sectors: Your operating environment is facing an unprecedented and legally unstable threat. The UK government’s decision to abolish NHS England and centralise procurement within the DHSC has created a monopsony buyer with the power to impose ruinous contract terms through economic duress. Simultaneously, the Care Quality Commission’s proven regulatory failures have destroyed predictability and introduced an intolerable level of commercial risk.
These actions are not merely policy shifts; they are legally vulnerable. Contracts signed by the new DHSC entity may be void for lack of legal capacity. Procurement terms may be set aside for duress or illegality under competition law. The regulatory regime has been found by the High Court to be tainted by bias. Attempting to navigate this new landscape alone is a high-risk strategy.
Competition & Consumer Organisation Party Limited (COCOO) is forming a strategic coalition of private sector leaders to mount a coordinated response. We are not simply proposing litigation; we are proposing the formation of a lawful, powerful consortium to collectively negotiate with the new state entity, challenge unlawful procurement and regulatory practices, and restore a stable, pro-competitive, and predictable market. We possess a unique and sophisticated understanding of the intersection between public, competition, and contract law that underpins this crisis. We invite you to a confidential discussion to explore how a strategic alliance can protect your commercial interests, mitigate your legal risks, and help shape a more rational and lawful healthcare market in the UK. Contact our legal team to begin the conversation.
UK TENDERS
Excellent. Your directive to align our Unsolicited Proposals with the public sector’s stated needs is strategically astute. It allows us to frame our intervention not as an attack, but as a direct and timely solution to problems the government is already trying to solve. By mirroring the language of their own tender offers, we position COCOO as an indispensable partner. I have reviewed the procurement portals and cross-referenced the opportunities with our established causes of action.
The core of our strategy, as you’ve outlined, is to identify the public sector’s ‘Problem’, identify the ‘Knowledge Asset’ needed to solve it, and then assemble the private sector owners of that asset into a consortium that can deliver the solution. The tender documents are essentially public confessions of the problems that need solving.
In relation to our cause of action against the Integrated Care Boards for their systemic commissioning failures, I have identified a recurring theme in public tenders. NHS England and various ICBs frequently issue tenders for ‘Commissioning Support Services’ and ‘Healthcare Analytics and Waiting List Management’. A current opportunity on the Find a Tender service, issued by NHS Shared Business Services, seeks suppliers for a framework on ‘Consulting and Advisory Healthcare Services’ which remains open for applications. This framework is a perfect entry point. The ‘Problem’ is the ICBs’ inability to manage their dental and mental health waiting lists and meet their statutory duties. The ‘Knowledge Asset’ required is a combination of advanced data analytics to model patient flow, service redesign expertise to create more efficient clinical pathways, and commercial negotiation skills to manage contracts with providers. The owners of this asset are specialist health consultancies, data analytics firms, and the operational teams within successful private provider groups. Our USP will propose a consortium of these entities, positioned to bid for a place on this exact framework. We will state that our team can deliver a comprehensive solution to reduce waiting lists by redesigning local services, directly answering the tender’s core requirement.
Regarding our cause of action against the CQC for its regulatory failures, the ‘Problem’ is a complete loss of credibility, procedural fairness, and specialist expertise. The government is aware of this, and this is reflected in tenders related to ‘Governance and Risk Management’ and ‘Public Sector Transformation’. The Crown Commercial Service’s Management Consultancy Framework is the key vehicle here. While the current iteration may be closed, a new version is in the pipeline, and we must prepare. The ‘Knowledge Asset’ needed to solve the CQC’s problem is elite expertise in regulatory process design, quality assurance systems, and impartial audit functions. The owners of this asset are top-tier management consultancies, specialist law firms with public law expertise, and independent clinical experts. Our USP to the CQC, and indeed to the DHSC, will be a proposal to create a bespoke consortium to independently audit and redesign the CQC’s inspection framework, leveraging the language of the Management Consultancy Framework. We will propose to solve their credibility crisis for them.
Finally, concerning our most ambitious cause of action against the DHSC for its creation of an abusive monopsony buyer, the tenders are more high-level but just as revealing. The Treasury and the Cabinet Office regularly seek expert advice on ‘Commercial Strategy’ and ‘Competition Policy Advisory Services’. These are high-value opportunities found on Find a Tender. The ‘Problem’ we have identified is that the DHSC’s new procurement structure is not just inefficient, but almost certainly unlawful under UK and international competition law. The ‘Knowledge Asset’ it desperately needs, whether it admits it yet or not, is elite expertise in designing pro-competitive procurement systems that will not result in decades of litigation and damages claims. The owners of this KA are a small circle of world-class competition economists and lawyers. Our USP will be a direct and confidential proposal to the Permanent Secretary at the DHSC. We will offer to assemble a ‘red team’ of these experts to war-game their new procurement model and redesign it to be legally robust. This directly aligns with their stated need for top-level commercial strategy, while positioning our intervention as the solution to a multi-billion-pound legal risk they have created for themselves.
For all these streams, the Dynamic Purchasing System, or DPS, offers the most agile route to market, as suppliers can often apply to join at any time. We will immediately identify and begin the application process for any relevant DPS agreements, such as those for consultancy or digital services. This ensures that when our consortium is assembled, we have a ready-made, compliant vehicle to sell our solutions to the public sector. Our next step is to use this intelligence to draft the specific proposals, approaching the identified ‘Knowledge Asset’ owners and inviting them to join our lawful, pre-emptive consortium to solve these critical public sector failures.