Suministro, instalación, puesta en marcha y mantenimiento de software informatizado de gestión de expedientes de pacientes (IPM)

✓The place of performance is CHBA’s hospital sites, with interactions across various services and links to Belgian health platforms and the Réseau de Santé Wallon.

✓Quantities are not fixed line by line at this stage but prices will be a mix of global and schedule-of-rates (bordereau), covering unique costs and recurrent costs (maintenance, licences, SLA).

✓The duration of the market is expressly “indéterminée”; however, maintenance, SLA and licence use are formalised through an annually renewable contract, tacitly renewed unless CHBA terminates with a three‑month pre‑anniversary notice, and the tenderer must commit to provide maintenance and usage rights for a minimum of 15 years from contract conclusion.

✓The timeline for the procedure includes a question deadline (19 November 2026 on the e‑procurement forum), a demand for participation deadline (30 November 2026 at 10:00:00), and provisions that rectificatory notices near the deadline automatically push back the date by 6 or 8 days.

✓The payment decision period for the healthcare-related software is set at 60 days under article 127 of the RGE.

✓On award criteria and weighting, the text explains that the contract will be awarded to the economically most advantageous offer based on several criteria with specific weights.

✓These criteria are, such as: price (50 points, based on total cost = one‑off costs + recurrent costs over five years, compared through a proportional formula against the lowest regular offer); functional characteristics (25 points, tied to 904 functional requirements, of which 494 essential and 410 non‑essential, each non‑essential requirement being weighted 1–4 points and scored 0 if unmet, then normalized to 25 points); additional modules (19 points for non‑mandatory modules such as appointment management, ICU, OR management, RIS, neonatology, nephrology, pregnancy record, specific convention management, nuclear medicine, provided all related implementation, licence and maintenance costs are included in the price); planning (2 points, evaluated via a max 2‑page implementation schedule, including CHBA resource requirements by staff category and respecting minimum constraints in § II.8); training (2 points, evaluated via a max 3‑page training plan, aligned with minimum training demands in § II.6); data migration from the previous DPI (1 point, via a max 2‑page description of migration tools, rules and validation methods complying with § II.5); and exit plan (1 point, via a max 2‑page description of how the system and data can be exited, in line with § II.9).

✓Essential technical/legal requirements (e.g.

✓CE marking for medical device functionalities, ISO norms, MDR compliance, RGPD and AI Act compliance, French language for interfaces and support, certain AI/cybersecurity/RGPD clauses in annex IV, and the essential constraints X.1–X.36 and X.39) must be met; any offer failing an essential requirement is irregular and void.

✓Concerning risks and special conditions, the text outlines several elements that shape the bidder’s risk profile.

✓These include, such as: strict e‑procurement and signature rules, with late, unsigned or improperly signed submissions declared substantively irregular; an “offer unique” requirement (one offer per tenderer, no joint offers in phase 2); the possibility for CHBA to record negotiation meetings; and the obligation for selected bidders to attend negotiation sessions, with absence leading to exclusion.

❓The contracting authority reserves the right not to award or conclude the contract for reasons such as inability to implement within deadlines, opportunity to cooperate with another hospital to reuse its solution, extension of the current software beyond 31 December 2028, or unacceptable pricing; there is no compensation if CHBA decides not to award.

✓The market is long-term and indeterminate, but CHBA can unilaterally terminate at each yearly term without justification or indemnity, creating commercial risk for the supplier, albeit mitigated by the minimum 15‑year service commitment.

✓While detailed penalties, guarantees and subcontracting rules are not fully described in the excerpts, the general regulatory framework (RGE, Loi, AR) applies, and the bidder is warned that non‑compliance with social, labour or environmental criminally sanctioned obligations, or accumulation of non‑substantial irregularities, will make the offer null.

✓The language requirement (French) is essential both during the tender and execution phases, including for maintenance technicians and helpdesk, posing an operational risk for non‑Francophone suppliers.

✓Question handling is centralized via the official forum, and any changes generate rectificatory notices that may alter deadlines, so bidders must monitor and adapt.

✓As to contradictions or corrections within the documents, the text clarifies that the “guide de sélection” is an integral part of the contract documents together with the future “cahier spécial des charges” and any rectificatory notices.

✓It also states that CHBA can derogate from the guide during the procedure provided transparency, objectivity and equal treatment are upheld, and that candidates will be explicitly informed of any modification (derogation, adaptation or addition).

✓For functional constraints, the annex III table defines which requirements are essential (V) or non‑essential (F) and their award weighting; in case of ambiguity between narrative text and annexes, the explicit essential/non‑essential designation governs regularity (essential must be met, non‑essential impacts scoring).

✓Similarly, where the same concept appears in both the general description section and the detailed selection or award criteria, such as the object of the contract or the prohibition of variants and options, the repeated, consistent formulations indicate that no true conflict exists: variants and free options are disallowed throughout, and the solution must be coherent, indivisible and fully compatible with CHBA’s environment.

Answers on the required criteria

Is a minimum annual turnover required? If so: how much (per lot) and for which period?

✓Regarding minimum annual turnover, the text explicitly sets a quantitative financial selection requirement.

✓The candidate must indicate in the DUME its global turnover and the turnover in the activity domain relevant to the contract for the last three available financial years.

✓The minimum level required is that the average annual global turnover over the last three complete financial years must be greater than or equal to 5,000,000.00 EUR.

✓There is no division into lots, so this minimum applies to the single overall contract, not “per lot”.

✓The reference period is the three most recent complete financial years, adjusted where necessary to the date of creation or start of activities of the candidate.

Is a minimum number of staff or a specific staff qualification required? If so: how many or which?

✓Such as staff and qualifications, the document does not prescribe a minimum number of staff, but it does impose qualitative requirements on certain personnel and requires detailed planning of resources.

✓In particular, it states that the working language throughout the procurement and contract execution is French, and that technicians assigned to maintenance as well as the help desk must “maîtriser parfaitement le français”; this linguistic mastery is described as an essential requirement for participation, for the offer, and for execution.

✓In the award phase, candidates will have to submit a planning memo specifying, in terms of full‑time equivalents (ETP), the human resources to be provided by CHBA by personnel category (such as informatician, medical, nurse, project manager, DPI team, pharmacist, administrative), but this is for evaluation rather than as a fixed minimum staffing level for bidders.

❓No explicit numerical minimum staff size or specific professional titles/certifications are set for the economic operator’s team beyond the language and experience requirements embedded in the technical references.

Is enrolment in a trade or professional register required? If so: which proof and how recent?

✓Concerning enrolment in a trade or professional register, the section on “aptitude à exercer l’activité professionnelle” provides that, where one or more components of the DPI are considered “dispositifs médicaux” under EU Regulation (UE) 2017/745 (MDR), the candidate must be registered with the Belgian medicines agency AFMPS or in the EU database EUDAMED, depending on whether it acts as distributor or manufacturer.

✓The candidate must attach proof of this registration to the request to participate, thereby demonstrating compliance with the Belgian Royal Decree of 12 May 2021 on medical devices.

❓There is no general requirement stated for enrollment in a national trade register beyond what is inherently checked via DUME and standard Belgian procurement rules, but the medical‑device registration is a specific, explicit professional aptitude condition.

Must securities be provided (bid bond, performance or warranty guarantee)? If so: which, in what amount and by when?

❓As to securities such as bid bonds or performance/warranty guarantees, the provided text does not specify any requirement to furnish such securities in the selection phase.

❓The guide sets out administrative rules, exclusion and selection criteria, and negotiation arrangements, but there are no clauses in the excerpt requiring a caution, garantie, bid bond, performance bond, or warranty guarantee, nor any amounts or deadlines for such securities.

❓The document states that full practical modalities for submitting offers will be detailed in the “cahier spécial des charges” sent in the second phase; any guarantee requirements, if any, would likely appear there, but they are not present in the text excerpts provided.

Is subcontracting allowed? If so: with which limits and which disclosure duties?

✓Such as subcontracting and reliance on other entities, the guide allows candidates to rely on the capacities of third parties and to form groupings of economic operators under specific conditions.

✓Under “Capacité des tiers”, a candidate may use the economic and financial capacity and technical/professional capacity of other entities regardless of the legal link, provided that: (i) the candidate completes Part II.C of the DUME, (ii) the third entity itself meets the access and exclusion requirements (with its own DUME attached), and (iii) the candidate supplies proof (an engagement) that it will indeed have the necessary means from that entity.

✓The annexed participation form also includes a “SOUS‑TRAITANTS” section, which indicates that subcontractors must be identified.

❓However, no explicit quantitative limits or percentage caps on subcontracting are stated in the excerpt; the main disclosure duties concern naming subcontractors, completing DUME for each entity whose capacities are used, and ensuring that all such entities comply with exclusion and professional aptitude rules.

Is there a site visit, and is attendance mandatory? If so: when?

❓As regards the requested topics on site visits, the excerpt does not describe any “visite des lieux” or “site visit” organised as part of the procedure.

✓It gives detail on negotiations, which must take place either on site at CHBA or via videoconference, and it states that attendance at these negotiation meetings is mandatory for selected tenderers (non‑attendance leads to exclusion of the offer).

❓However, there is no mention of a preliminary site visit for candidates or tenderers, nor of any date or obligation to attend such a visit.

❓Based solely on the provided text, there is therefore no site visit requirement described.

In which language must the tender and the supporting documents be submitted, and are documents in other languages accepted?

✓Concerning the language of the tender and its supporting documents, the document is explicit.

✓It states that requests to participate and annexed documents “sont établis en français” and that the working language (“langue véhiculaire”) for all communication in both award and execution phases is French, including maintenance services; for example, technicians and helpdesk staff must master French perfectly.

✓Elsewhere, in the functional requirements, it is specified that the DPI user interface and documentation must be in French.

❓There is no indication that documents in other languages are accepted; rather, the wording makes French an essential requirement for both submissions and subsequent performance.

How long is the bidder bound by the tender (validity period), and is there a deadline for bidder questions? If so: until when?

❓As to the validity period of tenders and the deadline for bidder questions, the excerpt does provide a clear deadline for questions but not an explicit tender‑validity period.

✓Questions on the “guide de sélection” must be submitted exclusively via the forum attached to the contract notice on https://publicprocurement.be “au plus tard pour le 19 novembre 2026,” and the contracting authority will publish answers at the latest six calendar days before the deadline for requests to participate (which is set at “30 novembre 2026 à 10h00m00s”).

❓The text mentions a 60‑day “délai de traitement” under Article 127 RGE, but that concerns the payment period for certain contracts in the health sector, not the period during which bidders are bound by their tenders; no specific offer validity period is stated in the excerpt.

Are contractual penalties agreed? If so: at what rate and with which cap?

✓Finally, regarding contractual penalties, the table of contents of Annex IV refers to “ARTICLE X.38 – DÉFAUTS D’EXÉCUTION ET SANCTIONS,” suggesting that the detailed regime of penalties in case of non‑performance is defined there.

❓However, the provided text does not reproduce Article X.38 itself and therefore does not specify any concrete rate (such as a percentage of contract value per day of delay) nor any financial cap on penalties.

❓Thus, based on the excerpt alone, one can say only that a sanctions/penalties framework exists in Annex IV, but its precise level and maximum limit are not disclosed in the material you provided.

Further details

✓The input text concerns a public procurement procedure launched by the Centre Hospitalier Bois de l’Abbaye (CHBA) in Seraing, Belgium, for the implementation and maintenance of an electronic patient record (Dossier Patient Informatisé, DPI).

✓It is written from the point of view of Belgian public procurement law (Loi du 17 juin 2016, AR du 18 avril 2017, RGE du 14 janvier 2013) and repeatedly refers to European Union regulations (such as MDR, GDPR, AI Act) that bind the contracting authority and bidders.

✓The text is the “guide de sélection” for the first (selection) phase of a two‑stage procedure concurrentielle avec négociation.

✓Such as background information, the guide explains that the market is a mixed services and supplies contract, qualified as a service contract, awarded under a competitive procedure with negotiation with EU and Belgian publication.

✓It clarifies that the market is not divided into lots due to the indivisible nature and technical complexity of the DPI solution, that variants and options are not allowed, and that communications and submissions must be made electronically via the Belgian BOSA publicprocurement platform with a qualified electronic signature.

✓It also describes exclusion grounds (criminal, tax and social debts, professional misconduct), selection criteria (professional aptitude, economic and financial capacity, technical and professional capacity), and use of the European Single Procurement Document (DUME).

✓In addition, bidders must provide recent criminal record extracts (max. six months) for the members of their administrative/management/supervisory body and persons with powers of representation, decision or control, to prove absence of mandatory exclusion grounds; these documents can be requested at any point and must be supplied within 12 calendar days.

✓Under “Groupement d’opérateurs économiques”, each member of an unincorporated grouping must individually satisfy the exclusion and access conditions (with individual DUMEs), while the group as a whole must meet all capacity criteria; a representative must be designated by mandate.

✓The input text is an excerpt from the “Guide de sélection” for the public tender AD05‑26 issued by the Centre Hospitalier Bois de l’Abbaye (CHBA), a hospital in Seraing, Belgium.

✓It describes administrative rules and needs for the procurement of a software solution for a Dossier Patient Informatisé (DPI).

✓The regulatory framework and examples mentioned (such as Belgian laws on public procurement, Belgian Royal Decrees, references to the Belgian e-procurement platform, and authorities like the Conseil d’État) show that the document is written from the Belgian legal and practical point of view.

✓The text explains the overall procedure and context of the tender.

✓It is a Belgian and EU‑publicised “procédure concurrentielle avec négociation” for a mixed contract of services and supplies relating to the implementation, maintenance and licensing of a hospital DPI.

✓The procedure is split into a first phase (selection based on requests to participate) and a second phase (submission and negotiation of offers), with detailed criteria on exclusion, selection, and award.

✓For instance, it clarifies that the contract duration is legally particular: the maintenance and licensing are organised as one‑year contracts tacitly renewable for an indeterminate total duration, with an obligation on the future contractor to be able to provide maintenance and licences for at least 15 years.