encompass: From Implementation to Impact – A New Era for Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland
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March 9, 2026
On Tuesday 24th February, leaders from across Health and Social Care Northern Ireland (HSCNI) gathered at Stormont for the encompass – from Implementation to Impact event, celebrating the early achievements and future potential of the region’s new electronic health record (EHR).
The event highlighted how encompass is modernising clinical practice, empowering service users, and reshaping how care is delivered across hospitals and community settings.
encompass has now replaced paper records across all hospital and community services in Northern Ireland. This single, unified record is supporting clinicians to work more efficiently and with greater confidence.
Dr David Wilson, Senior Responsible Owner for encompass and Consultant Physician, described how encompass is transforming care by reflecting on the journey from initial concept to real‑world impact across the HSC system. Examples of this include:
· Better triage of referrals before clinic appointments, ensuring patients are directed to the right service at the right time.
· Enhanced efficiency during clinics, with new digital tools enabling faster, more accurate note-taking and clinical documentation.
· Improved visibility of patient information, reducing variation in care and freeing up time for clinical decision‑making.
These improvements are arriving at a critical moment for elective services, helping teams address waiting lists and flow challenges across the system.
Professor Mark Taylor, Clinical Director for Elective Care, stated: “The system is going to be really beneficial in dealing with a variation of practice in dealing with efficiencies in productivity, but more importantly, where our service users and patients are actively helping us to help them.”
Dr Neil Black, Chief Clinical Information Officer for the Western Health and Social Care Trust and Chair of the Regional My Care Governance and Decision Group focused on My Care, Northern Ireland’s new patient portal. Dr. Black explained how My Care allows service users to access their own health information digitally, receive timely updates and view appointments, which means people are not waiting for reliability or timeliness of the delivery of physical letters and that is particularly important when your appointment is made at short notice.
“This is going to transform the way your healthcare is delivered and how you interact with services.” said Dr. Black.
This event focused on how encompass represents a fundamental shift in how health and social care is delivered in Northern Ireland. By digitally connecting services and empowering both clinicians and patients, the programme is helping to create a more efficient, consistent, and responsive health system.
This was a moment to recognise how far the programme has already come and how much potential it holds for improving care in the years ahead.
Click here to watch the video: encompass – from implementation to impact
Page last updated: 9 March 2026