Belfast Trust goes live with a new digital patient record system

6th June 2024

Belfast Health and Social Care Trust is now live with the new digital record system, encompass, replacing paper processes with a single digital record for each person. This means staff will have immediate access to care records, whether patients or service users are in hospital or at home.

The system went live across Belfast Trust at 4am on June 6, and marks the culmination of a huge amount of work delivered by staff across the Trust ensuring the system was successfully implemented. encompass will ultimately make services safer and more efficient.

Belfast Trust Chief Executive, Dr Cathy Jack, said: “I am so proud of our staff who have been working tirelessly on our go-live preparations over the past year. I want to thank our staff for their tremendous efforts and thank everyone who has helped us implement the system, including our colleagues from other Trusts, regional encompass colleagues and the Epic team.

“The introduction of encompass means the way we work has changed. Our staff will now have immediate access to care records, whether patients or service users are in hospital or at home. This will improve efficiency across the system and contribute positively to patient safety.

“Most importantly, there are also enormous benefits for our patients and service users who will not need to repeat their information to staff at every appointment, creating a better experience for them.”

Alastair Campbell, Belfast Trust’s Director of Performance, Planning and Informatics added: “encompass is now the interface through which every clinical and administrative team delivers care. This is a huge change and there will be a period of adjustment for staff as we get used to the new system. We would like to thank patients, service users and visitors for their patience and understanding during this time.”

encompass Senior Responsible Owner, Dr Dermot Hughes paid tribute to the work that has taken place right across HSCNI to be ready for Go-Live. He said: “Implementing encompass in a Trust as big as Belfast has been a massive undertaking. Dr Cathy Jack and the team at Belfast Trust have embraced that challenge and it is a credit to staff at every level that we have been able to Go-Live today. I have often said that transformation on this scale requires a HSCNI wide approach and once again, I am thankful for the efforts and support from colleagues right across the system who are on the ground supporting a safe Go-Live for patients.”

Find out about encompass and how it is transforming Health and Social Care across Northern Ireland.