7th April 2025
On 8 May 2025, Northern Ireland will mark a significant moment in health and social care history as the Southern and Western Health and Social Care Trusts officially Go-Live with encompass, the electronic health care record.
This key milestone will make Northern Ireland the first region in the UK to have all Trusts using one unified digital system.
The encompass programme, which has been progressively implemented across Northern Ireland since November 2023, replaces outdated paper records with real-time up-to-date digital information accessible to all those involved in delivering care. For the first time, every citizen in Northern Ireland will have their own digital health and social care record.
As part of this transformation, all patients and service users across Northern Ireland will have the option of accessing parts of their own healthcare records via the secure online patient portal called My Care.
As the Southern Trust makes its final preparations for implementation Dr Stephen Austin, Medical Director said: “Since starting our encompass journey around three years ago, a huge amount of energy and effort has gone in to getting us to our current state of readiness. Thanks to the hard work of all staff right across our organisation. This is an exciting time for the Southern Trust as we embrace this digital transformation. We look forward to realising the benefits of a paper light health and social care system with real-time access to information which will ultimately help to improve service user experience and outcomes.”
With less than one month to Go-Live, Teresa Molloy, Director of Planning, Performance, and Corporate Services at the Western Trust and Senior Responsible Officer for encompass added: “As we approach the final stages of readiness for encompass Go-Live, I want to pay tribute to all of our staff and teams for the huge effort they have made in delivering all aspects of this programme over many months. This collective effort means that we are well prepared for the transition to this new way of working, transforming the way we provide care, and making the change as seamless as possible for our staff and our patients and clients.”
Dr. Dermot Hughes, Senior Responsible Owner for encompass, emphasised the significance of this achievement: “The completion of the encompass rollout across each health and social care trust is a landmark for Northern Ireland as a whole, positioning us as a leader in healthcare innovation, with an integrated digital system that prioritises the highest quality of patient care and safety.”
“encompass has already demonstrated its potential to transform healthcare delivery in the South Eastern, Belfast and Northern Trusts, and the Southern and Western Trusts are proud to join their counterparts in embracing this digital future.”
