OCDS Explained: Open Contracting Data for Healthcare Suppliers

The Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) is a common, machine-readable format for publishing public procurement data, and the UK's Find a Tender and Contracts Finder both use it. For suppliers, OCDS turns procurement from a pile of PDFs into structured, queryable data.

What OCDS contains

An OCDS release describes a contracting process through its stages, planning, tender, award and contract, with structured fields for buyer, value, dates, classification (CPV) and suppliers. Crucially it covers awards, not just opportunities, so you can see who won and for how much.

Why it matters for healthcare suppliers

• Systematic opportunity discovery by CPV, buyer and keyword
• Competitive intelligence from award data, see who is winning healthcare contracts
• Reliable deadlines and values in structured fields, not buried in documents

The catch: it's still a data-engineering job

OCDS feeds are large, paginated, rate-limited and mixed across every sector, extracting the healthcare slice daily, de-duplicating it and linking awards to tenders is real engineering. That is precisely the pipeline HealthProcure Intel runs so you don't have to. For how it compares across borders see reading a contract award notice.

Frequently asked questions

Which UK portals use OCDS?

Both Find a Tender and Contracts Finder publish OCDS release packages via their APIs.

Does OCDS include who won a contract?

Yes, OCDS covers the award stage, including supplier names and values, which makes it valuable for competitive intelligence.