Belfast Health and Social Care Trust is to go live with its electronic patient record, encompass, on 6 June 2024, as part of plans to provide every person in Northern Ireland with their own health and social care record.
The trust previously supported South Eastern Trust in their own roll-out of encompass, with Belfast’s chief executive Dr Cathy Jack stating that as a result they are “fully aware of the benefits of providing one digital health and care record which will put patient and service users at the heart of what we do.” She added that she is excited to see how the introduction of encompass and its patient portal “will positively change the working lives of our staff and the care given to our community.”
encompass is described as “clinically and operationally led”, with Digital Health and Care Northern Ireland sharing how the encompass team “is working closely with Epic on activities to put us in the best position to move forward”, giving encompass “the flexibility to design and make decisions for the needs of patients, service users and staff”.
Permanent secretary at the Department of Health, Peter May, comments: “The introduction of encompass is transformational in how health and social care will be delivered across Northern Ireland.
“The roll out to Belfast Health and Social Care Trust marks a significant next step in its implementation, which will take place on a phased basis across all Trusts. I commend healthcare staff for their continued commitment to adopting encompass. I am confident that the ability to access patient information digitally will benefit both the Health and Social Care system and individual service users.”
In other news from Northern Ireland, earlier in the year we covered how the Department of Health announced an initiative to centralise and improve information available to patients through the website My Waiting Times NI.
We also previously explored Health and Social Care Northern Ireland’s digital strategy, spanning until 2030; click here to read more.
