Frequently Asked Questions

Singapore Health Services Pte Ltd (SingHealth) is the largest public healthcare cluster in Singapore, with 2 tertiary hospitals,

5 national specialty centres, a network of primary healthcare clinics and a community hospital.

SingHealth group of hospitals, national centres and polyclinics have their own Materials Management Department to meet 

their own specific institutional needs for purchases and inventory of products and services. The GPO was established to adopt 

strategic sourcing for common spend across the cluster to leverage on economies of scale; engage key stakeholders; and forge 

vendor partnerships with the ultimate aim of reducing the Group’s total cost of ownership.

It is intended that the process will generally be executed through SingHealth GPO as an agent for the relevant SingHealth group 

of institutions, i.e. SingHealth GPO will despatch the relevant Requests for Proposal (RFP) to vendors; review replies therefrom; conduct 

negotiations and select “strategic vendors” on behalf of all the entities in the Group. However, if and when any vendor is selected under 

this strategic sourcing process, the chosen vendor will enter into a master agreement with the relevant institutions. Notwithstanding this

master agreement, the respective hospitals and national centres will still continue to take deliveries directly from the vendor.

For the RFP process, SingHealth GPO will invite selected vendors to submit proposals for various products and/or services through

“Requests for Proposal”. SingHealth will evaluate these proposal submissions. Should we wish to proceed further, GPO will approach 

any one or more vendors for further negotiation/discussion.

Generally, it is expected that selection of vendors will, among other considerations, be based on:

1. end-user acceptance,
2. price of products,
3. ability to service all sites in system equally,
4. product ordering options,
5. delivery capabilities,
6. backlog policy (vendor finances added costs associated with products unavailable in specified time frame),
7. available payment terms,
8. product exchange program (expired product, obsolete product, etc.),
9. diversity of product offering,
10. product consignment (where appropriate),
11. program to report product utilization rates,
12. contract compliance data,
13. access to informed and qualified support staff,
14. program for new technology pricing and availability, and
15. product performance guarantees.

As is the case under any tender process, SingHealth may also conduct end-user evaluations to assess the product quality and suitability of each vendor.

The foregoing is not, and is not intended to be in any way, an exhaustive or comprehensive list of evaluation criteria. You will appreciate that 

the evaluation process is a dynamic one, which has to change and evolve to meet varying user requirements or the call of increasing standards of healthcare provisions.

SingHealth GPO Evaluation Committee makes the final decision. The committee comprises clinicians, nurses, biomedical engineers, pharmacists 

and admin staff from all the institutions. At times, it also involves experts from other sectors. The scope of the assessment framework would include the technical, economic,

social, professional, and ethical factors involved in the implementation of the vendor’s product(s) / service(s).

Successful tenders or vendors’ proposals are selected based on a set of objective criteria which offer the best value to SingHealth GPO in terms of the total cost of ownership.

The final contracted price is no longer published as SingHealth GPO regards it as strategic information. However, vendors are assured that SingHealth GPO pledges 

to uphold the highest standard of Professionalism, Integrity and Good Faith.

Email us:
For  Pharmaceutical products              gpo.pharma@singhealth.com.sg  
For Non-Pharmaceutical products        gpo.mm@singhealth.com.sg