What is encompass?
With Northern Ireland’s ever-growing population and longer life expectancy, health and social care is in more demand than ever. Ongoing and continued pressures mean we must adapt and change how we deliver care.
encompass is a Health and Social Care Northern Ireland wide initiative that will introduce an electronic care record for every person in Northern Ireland. This will be a single, digital record for each person. It records all the health and social care needs of a person for the whole of their life.
The encompass programme is underpinned by software called Epic. Epic is considered a global leader, currently providing electronic records for over 300 million people both within the UK and across the globe. Health and Social Care is partnering with Epic’s expertise to build encompass as a new system unique to NI.
Our new system will provide patients and service users with the safest, highest quality of care that is possible.
Why are we doing this?
Across Health and Social Care, our staff use lots of different systems which cannot, or cannot easily, communicate with each other. Many of these systems are old, outdated, and require replacement. Rather than continuing to rely on paper records and replacing technology on a system-by-system basis, we are implementing encompass, to improve the way we care for our patients and service users.
We are working with Epic to provide a single source of patient information. Epic’s platform gives us the flexibility to design and make decisions for the needs of our patients, service users and staff.
This clinical transformation will create an effective, safe and world class experience for our patients, service users and staff.
What does encompass mean for you?
encompass will introduce an electronic care record for every person in Northern Ireland. A single health record for patients means:
- Less repetition – you will spend less time telling your story over and over again to different health providers and less time undergoing repeat tests.
- Improved quality and consistency of care with NICE standards being used to design one system for all of Northern Ireland.
- A patient portal, My Care, will provide you with access to some of your health and social care records helping you become more empowered in your health journey.
- Digital safety checks will be built into the system for allergies, infection risks and dose checking providing patients with improved safety.
My Care
My Care is the encompass patient portal which is available as an app or through a web browser on a digital device.
My Care gives you greater control over your healthcare by providing you with personalised and secure online access to specific parts of your medical records.
From 8 May 2025, patients and service users interacting with most Western Trust services will be able to access information via My Care should they wish to do so.
For more information, visit the My Care website.
Useful Information
Access our Easy Read document with information about encompass here