National Clinical Audit of Rheumatoid and Early Inflammatory Arthritis.

The overarching aim of the Rheumatoid and Early Inflammatory Audit is the collection, analysis and effective reporting of robust comparative data on the quality of care and patient outcomes for newly referred rheumatoid and inflammatory arthritis patients being cared for in NHS secondary care rheumatology services in England and Wales.

The audit should be a mechanism to drive improvement within the NHS for the benefit of patients, their carers and those working to deliver care.

Engagement with clinicians, patients and commissioners (both local and national) and regional networks is therefore essential in order to support improvements.The contract is let initially to be delivered solely for England and Wales.

However, there is potential both to extend the contract for a possible additional 2 years, continuing to cover England and Wales, subject to the availability of funding and an assessment by HQIP on the quality of delivery of the programme.

In addition, there is a possibility that Scotland may elect to join the programme at a point of time in the future.The additional contract value that would be offered to support Scottish participation would be 62 420 GBP over 3 years pro rata excluding VAT.

If Scotland joined early in the first year and the whole contract was then extended to the 5 years' total duration, the maximum contract value would be 1 201 950 GBP excluding VAT Therefore the value of the contract being tendered is 658 750 GBP in the first instance, to a maximum value of 1 201 950 GBP excluding VAT.