The National Joint Registry (NJR) has been in operation for 15 years and provides activity and outcome data about the orthopaedic sector.

Hip, knee, ankle, elbow and shoulder joint replacements have become common operations, using a wide range of implants. The NJR helps to monitor the performance of these implants and the effectiveness of different types of surgery, improving clinical standards and benefiting patients, clinicians and the orthopaedic sector as a whole.

The NJR is managed by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) under a contract with NHS England as part of the delivery of the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme (NCAPOP).

About this change

The changes reflect the data that is regarded as necessary for the NJR to meet its requirements in the monitoring and reporting of the outcomes of joint replacement surgery.

The changes are clinically endorsed and are due to new, additional procedure types being used, advances in orthopaedic device technology and changes in clinical practice. They include new data items, revision of values, and some deletions, across all joint procedures. There are corresponding changes to the XML schema which is used within the Bulk Upload service.

Version 7.0 went live on 4 June 2018.

All new procedures, i.e. those taking place from this date, must be submitted using Version 7.0.

Procedures with an operation date prior to 4 June 2018 can still be submitted using version 6.0. However, from 1 January 2019 all procedure records must be submitted using Version 7.0.

This standard is mandatory for all trusts offering joint replacement surgery under the NHS Standard Contract, Service Conditions 26.1.2.