National Emergency Laparotomy Audit Contract

Opportunity to deliver the National Emergency Laparotomy Audit (NELA), a national clinical audit measuring quality and outcomes of emergency laparotomy care across NHS providers in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Jersey. The 3-year contract (with potential 2-year extension) is funded at up to £951,168 excluding VAT (£1,141,401 including VAT). The successful tenderer will build on the audit's 12-year track record, delivering high-quality comparative performance data to support healthcare improvement. Key responsibilities include: developing robust quality metrics aligned with NICE guidance; providing timely, accessible data and interactive dashboards to all providers; engaging clinicians, patients, commissioners and regional networks; detecting and reducing unwarranted clinical variation through systematic benchmarking; linking data to national datasets; and supporting coordinated improvement across emergency laparotomy pathways. The audit aims to sustain reductions in 30-day mortality and complications, reduce length of stay, improve access to time-critical interventions, and enable early identification of underperforming services. Successful delivery requires strong project management, statistical rigour, meaningful patient and public involvement, and flexibility to expand scope to devolved nations and Crown dependencies.