NI health service enters new digital era with ‘encompass’ roll-out completed across all Trusts

The encompass journey as it rolled out across all health trusts in Northern Ireland: (inset) Health Minister Mike Nesbitt

Northern Ireland’s health and social care system has reached a landmark moment as the Southern and Western Health and Social Care Trusts officially ‘Go-Live’ with encompass, completing the regional roll-out of the digital patient record system.

With all five Trusts now operational on the encompass platform, Northern Ireland becomes the first UK region to implement a single, integrated digital care record for every citizen accessing health and social care.

The move has been hailed as a transformative step in modernising patient services, data management, and clinical workflows.

Health Minister Mike Nesbitt praised the achievement, calling it “a significant milestone” for the region’s health services.

“Today marks a significant milestone in Northern Ireland’s health and social care service, as the final two Health Trusts ‘Go-Live’ on encompass. Its introduction across the Trusts places HSC Northern Ireland in the forefront of digital transformation of health service delivery,” said Minister Nesbitt.

Launched in stages since 2023, encompass has now been deployed across the Belfast, Northern, South Eastern, Southern and Western Trusts. It enables a comprehensive digital patient record that is accessible to authorised health professionals and, for the first time, to patients themselves via the My Care portal.

The portal, available as both an app and web platform, allows individuals to view appointments, test results, and care plans — empowering them to take an active role in their healthcare journey.

Developed in partnership with Epic, one of the world’s leading providers of electronic health record software, encompass has been tailored specifically to the needs of Northern Ireland. Epic currently supports more than 300 million patients worldwide.

Tom Simpson, Deputy Chief Digital Information Officer at the Department of Health and Director of Digital Health and Care Northern Ireland, underscored the significance of this development:

“Today is a really important day for the transformation of our Health and Care sector. This isn’t just a new IT system, it is about changing how the sector works so that our staff have the right tools to deliver the best service for all in Northern Ireland.”

He added that encompass improves efficiency and patient safety by reducing paperwork, limiting repeat testing, and ensuring clinicians have immediate access to accurate information.

“It also provides better quality data to help improve services for the future and achieve better outcomes,” Simpson added.

Dr Dermot Hughes, Senior Responsible Owner for encompass, acknowledged the long-term collaboration behind the project:

“A significant step for HSCNI has been achieved as encompass is now live in Southern and Western Trusts. This completes the roll-out of a single, unified digital care record across each health and social care Trust in Northern Ireland.

“This outcome is the result of many years of hard work and collaboration by thousands of staff, within Trusts, the core encompass team, the BSO and the DHCNI. I thank everyone involved for their commitment and expertise.”

Dr Hughes highlighted that encompass would deliver “safer, more connected and more patient-centric” care, fundamentally transforming how patients experience the health service.

The successful implementation has involved significant coordination between Trusts, the Department of Health, Digital Health and Care NI (DHCNI), Strategic Planning and Performance Group (SPPG), and the Business Services Organisation (BSO).

Minister Nesbitt concluded by calling encompass “a once-in-a-generation opportunity” to overhaul healthcare in Northern Ireland:

“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity and has allowed Northern Ireland to modernise our systems and fundamentally improve how we deliver care.”

With encompass now fully operational across the region, patients, clinicians and health professionals alike are set to benefit from a more streamlined, transparent and accessible health service—one that is digitally equipped for the future.