NHS Supply Chain vs Find a Tender Service: Which to Use

NHS Supply Chain and the Find a Tender Service (FTS) serve different purposes. NHS Supply Chain manages national framework agreements on behalf of NHS trusts, while FTS is the UK government's portal for publishing high-value public contracts. Most suppliers selling to the NHS need to watch both. This guide explains the difference and which to use for what.

Quick comparison

Feature	NHS Supply Chain	Find a Tender Service (FTS)
What it is	Central buying organisation for the NHS in England	UK government portal for high-value tender notices
Covers	National framework agreements	Above-threshold public contracts across all sectors
Replaced	,	OJEU/TED for the UK (post-Brexit)
Best for	Selling products at scale to NHS trusts	Discovering formal tender opportunities

What is NHS Supply Chain?

NHS Supply Chain is the organisation that buys common goods and services centrally on behalf of NHS trusts in England, covering everything from surgical instruments to capital equipment. Rather than every hospital running its own procurement, NHS Supply Chain negotiates national framework agreements that trusts can buy from. If you want to supply the NHS at scale, getting onto the relevant framework is usually the goal.

What is the Find a Tender Service?

The Find a Tender Service (FTS) is the UK's portal for publishing high-value public sector contract notices. After Brexit, it replaced the requirement to publish in OJEU/TED for UK contracts. NHS bodies use FTS to advertise formal tenders above the procurement threshold, so it's where you'll find the official notices for larger opportunities.

How they work together

These two aren't competitors, they're complementary. A large NHS framework might be advertised on FTS when it's first tendered, then managed through NHS Supply Chain once awarded. To cover the full picture, you really need to watch both, plus Contracts Finder for lower-value opportunities and individual trust e-tendering platforms for local tenders.

Which should you use?

• Use FTS to discover formal, high-value NHS tender notices as they're published
• Use NHS Supply Chain to get onto national frameworks and sell to trusts at scale
• Use Contracts Finder for opportunities below the FTS threshold
• Watch individual trust portals for local tenders run directly by hospitals

For the full picture of where NHS opportunities live, see our complete guide on how to find NHS tenders.

The fragmentation problem

The catch is obvious: that's at least four separate systems to monitor just for the UK. Add Europe (TED Europa), the US (SAM.gov), and global health (WHO), and the manual workload becomes unsustainable.

How HealthProcure Intel helps

HealthProcure Intel brings NHS Supply Chain and other UK opportunities together with TED Europa, SAM.gov, and WHO data in one normalised API and dashboard. Instead of checking each portal, you get a single searchable feed with alerts and award data. Start free, no credit card required.

Frequently asked questions

Is Find a Tender the same as Contracts Finder?

No. FTS covers high-value, above-threshold contracts, while Contracts Finder covers lower-value public sector opportunities (above £12,000). Many suppliers monitor both.

Do I have to use NHS Supply Chain to sell to the NHS?

Not always, but for many product categories, being on an NHS Supply Chain framework is the main route to selling at scale across trusts.

Are these portals free?

Yes, both FTS and Contracts Finder are free to search. The cost is the time to monitor them consistently.