National major trauma registry (NMTR)

The National Major Trauma Registry (NMTR) is a clinical audit for trauma care across England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland. It is the largest European trauma registry and currently holds data on more than 1 million injured patients. It began collecting data in 1990 as the Trauma Audit and Research Network data collection (TARN) and was re-established by NHS England as the National Major Trauma Registry in 2024.

Why we collect trauma data

Traumatic injury is a global burden and contributes significantly to death and disability across the UK. For every trauma death, at least 2 people are left with severe and permanent disability and the effects of traumatic injury have considerable long-term implications on the quality of life of its survivors. As a result of traumatic injury, there is also a significant impact upon the associated costs to the NHS.

Established in 1990 and managed by the University of Manchester, the Trauma Audit and Research Network (TARN) data collection was the national clinical audit for trauma care across England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland, and received around 110,000 cases each year. In 2023, the university took a strategic decision to transfer ownership and operation of TARN to NHS England under the Outcomes and Registries Programme (ORP). Now re-established as the National Major Trauma Registry, NHS England will facilitate the collection, processing and dissemination of trauma data for use in system development and trauma care research, and to provide analyses that drive improvements in clinical safety and patient outcomes and reduce variation in clinical practice.

About the National Major Trauma Registry

The trauma registry collects data on the acute care pathway of patients with major traumatic injury whose length of stay is more than 3 overnight stays or are admitted to critical care (including transferred patients). The National Major Trauma Registry  data collection and service is implemented under Secretary of State directions (Outcomes and Registries 2024 Directions) and is mandated in the national major trauma clinical service specifications, and national quality accounts.

Development of the trauma registry began in July 2023. Since the service was launched in April 2024, we have:

  • improved information governance based upon Secretary of State Directions for NHS England to collect the data
  • developed a new data collection and analysis platform to reopen data collection across the trauma network
  • transferred the work of the TARN team to the NHS England NMTR service to maintain core clinical audit activity

NMTR data collection

Since April 2024, data has been submitted to the trauma registry through the Outcome Registries Platform. Access to the system is via an approved account and requires a log in.

The NMTR data collection will be rolled out in 4 phases:

  • phase 1: major trauma centres (adult and children)
  • phases 2 to 4: trauma units and participating local emergency hospitals

Data entry training will be provided one week prior to the hospital go live date.

Further information

  • for more information about data collection, including guidance on information governance, inclusion criteria and patient identification, visit about data collection
  • for answers to common queries about the registry and data collection please visit frequently asked questions

Training

National Major Trauma Registry training is available to all new users. Please use the contact details below to enquire about training.

User guides and videos can be found within the resources tab of the Outcome Registries Platform.

Enquiries

For further information, please contact: