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National Audit for Small Animal Neutering

The National Audit for Small Animal Neutering (NASAN) is a free audit that empowers teams across the UK and Republic of Ireland to track, compare and improve outcomes following neutering procedures in small animals.

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What is the NASAN?

The NASAN is a free-to-use audit that collects data on post-operative complications following neutering of dogs, cats, and rabbits.

NASAN helps veterinary practices across the UK and Republic of Ireland benchmark their outcomes and contribute to a shared mission of improving veterinary care. NASAN is more than just an audit—it's a collaborative effort to enhance veterinary care and ensure the best possible results for small animals everywhere.

The NASAN offers:

  • A user-friendly audit template
  • Insights into complication rates by species and procedure
  • A benchmark for spays and castrations across the UK and Ireland

The NASAN is managed by RCVS Knowledge, a charity with a mission to advance the quality of veterinary care for the benefit of animals, the public and society. RCVS Knowledge is a separate organisation to the RCVS, and it is governed as such by the RCVS Knowledge Board of Trustees. We are a separate data controller to the RCVS. RCVS Knowledge is not a public authority and is therefore not covered by the Freedom of Information Regulations.

Why should I take part?

Taking part in NASAN benefits your practice and the wider veterinary community:

  • Support better care: Help improve outcomes for animals across the UK and Ireland.
  • Benchmark your performance: Compare your results to identify strengths and areas for improvement.
  • Use it for free: There’s no cost to participate.
  • Earn recognition: Receive a certificate of participation—ideal for the RCVS Practice Standards Scheme.

How do I take part? 

1. Download the spreadsheet 

Save it in your preferred format - Excel, Google Sheets or Numbers. 

Download here (108kb XLSX)

Not sure if your software is compatible? Email us at [email protected]

2. Collect your data

Identify all dogs, cats and rabbits neutered during a specific period.

3. Enter the following details

  • Date of surgery
  • Patient weight (optional)
  • Breed (optional)
  • Type of procedure
  • Outcome, choosing from:
    • Lost to follow-up: patients that do not return to the practice.
    • No abnormality present: healed as normal
    • Abnormal:
      • No treatment necessary: resolved without intervention
      • Requiring medical treatment: needed additional medication (analgesia, antibiotics etc)
      • Requiring surgical intervention: required further surgery
    • Fatality of animal: the patient died, either in the peri- or post-operative period 

4. Add your practice name and country

This ensures you receive a certificate of participation.

Your certificate of participation is perfect for the RCVS Practice Standards Scheme

How do I submit my data?

You can submit your data in one of two ways:

1. Via the submission form

Submit your data

2. In bulk: Contact the QI team at [email protected] to discuss this further.

You can submit your data monthly, quarterly, or annually.

What do I do once I have my results?

Once you've submitted your data and received your results, the next step is to turn insights into action.

  • Read the latest benchmark report

To put your results into context, review the most recent NASAN benchmark report.

Comparing your outcomes with national trends can help you identify areas of strength and opportunities for improvement. It also provides a clearer picture of when changes might be needed and what kind of impact your interventions could have.

Access NASAN Reports

  • Start the conversation

Bring your results to your next team meeting. Use them as a springboard for discussion—what’s working well, and where could improvements be made? 

Use this poster to display your data and compare it with national benchmarks. It’s a great way to spark discussion and support your Quality Improvement (QI) efforts. (PDF 73KB – published November 2022)

The poster is designed for professional printing and lamination on A2 paper. You can purchase a printed version from Service Print

  • Explore the NASAN Resource Hub

Looking to improve your outcomes? Visit the NASAN Resource Hub for evidence-based articles, practical tools and resources to support your QI journey. 

Visit the Resource Hub

Frequently Asked Questions 

For further information please read Participating in the National Audit for Small Animal Neutering [PDF 168KB].

What data is required to take part in the NASAN?

  • Country of practice (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland)
  • Practice name (for a certificate to be sent to the practice. This certificate can be used for the RCVS Practice Standards Scheme- to show you are taking part in a national audit for benchmarking purposes)
  • Date of surgery
  • Type of surgery (to choose from):
    • Cat castrate.
    • Cat spay.
    • Dog castrate.
    • Bitch spay.
    • Laparoscopic bitch spay.
    • Rabbit castrate.
    • Rabbit spay.
  • Complication/follow-up (to choose from):
    • Lost to follow up.
    • No abnormality.
    • Abnormal – no treatment required.
    • Abnormal – medication required.
    • Abnormal – surgery required.
    • Death of animal.

Other data is optional to provide, and includes:

  • Breed
  • Weight
  • Type of procedure (flank, midline, open, closed, open-closed)

What personal data is included with the NASAN?

No personal data is collected for the NASAN. The data submitted does not fall under the remit of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

When you send your data to the NASAN, your email and practice name will be used to send back your participation certificate. This data is not stored. By sending us the data, and providing an email address, you give us permission to use your email address and practice name in this way.

How we define personal information (personal data)

'Personal data' means information which relates to a living person who can be identified from that data (a ‘data subject’) on its own, or when taken together with other data which is likely to come into our possession. This may be for example: a name, an address, phone number, email address or even an IP address. It does not include anonymised data.

This policy applies to all personal data whether it is stored electronically, on paper or on other materials. We will comply with the lawful basis processing requirements under Article 6 of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

How do we collect your data?

We collect your data when you give it to us directly. This is by sending us your completed NASAN spreadsheet, either by email, or by the submission form.

Security of your personal data

We place the highest importance on the securing of your data. We employ industry leading approaches to secure your digital (files and database entries) data. For cyber security reasons we do not publicly disclose the exact nature of the methods/techniques we use to secure your data.

We make every effort to protect its databases against loss, theft, unauthorised access, disclosure, copying, unauthorised use or modification. 

We only allow those of our employees who require access to such information in order to fulfil their duties to have such access.
For security purposes we use software programs to monitor traffic to identify unauthorised attempts to upload or change personal data, to screen our system for viruses, or otherwise cause damage to our database.

In addition to a broad range of cyber security provisions across all our systems and information stores, certain sections of our web sites and web applications encrypt your data in transit using SSL and comparable encryption standards.

However, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be totally secure. As a result, whilst we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information which you send to us, and so you do so at your own risk.

When we outsource any processes, we require the third party supplier to have appropriate security measures in place and be compliant with the GDPR principles. We require all third parties to respect the privacy of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law.

Third-party service providers should process your data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions and should not use your data for their own purposes. They will also be contractually bound by non-disclosure agreements to ensure the security of your data.

If any of your data is to be transferred to another country, we will ensure that suitable safeguards are in place before personal data is shared. We will not transfer, process or store your data anywhere that is outside of the European Economic Area, unless we have a contractual agreement in place that is of an equivalent standard to GDPR.

What happens to your data?

What do we do with your data?

  • All submitted data is pseudo-anonymised and analysed on an annual basis. This report is made publicly available to allow practices to compare their complication rates against the national benchmark.
  • All submitted data is kept in a secure, password protected location.
  • Your practice name will be used to generate a certificate for participation. This certificate can be used as evidence if you are taking part with the RCVS Practice Standards Scheme, and will be sent to the email address you supply when you submit the data. 

What don’t we do with your data?

  • We won’t share your data in any other way than previously described.
  • We won’t run reports or publish data with any practice details in.
  • We will not disclose your data to third parties. 

How long is your data kept for?

The data is kept indefinitely as part of a national benchmark.

Find out more

For further information please read Participating in the National Audit for Small Animal Neutering [PDF 168KB].

RCVS Knowledge would like to thank all practices that have submitted data. Without their participation, standards setting would not be possible.

If you require any further assistance with submitting data or you have any concerns or comments on this subject, please contact [email protected].

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