Cost of NI patient record system rises to £360m
- 1 July 2025
- The cost of the encompass digital records system for health trusts in Northern Ireland is now expected to reach £360 million, The Irish News report
- The encompass system was originally advertised with a £300m price tag but health minister AMike Nesbitt confirmed last week that this has risen by £60m
- In May 2025 it was confirmed that all citizens in Northern Ireland are now able to access a single digital care record
The cost of the encompass digital records system for health trusts in Northern Ireland is expected to exceed the £300 million originally estimated by £60m.
All citizens in Northern Ireland are able to access a single digital care record, following roll-out of the encompass patient record system at Southern Health and Social Care Trust and Western Health and Social Care Trust in May 2025.
The encompass programme, which is aimed at delivering the digitally enabled transformation of health and social care in Northern Ireland, was originally planned to cost £300m.
However health minister Mike Nesbitt told Members of the Legislative Assembly in June 2025 that the programme is now predicted to reach £360m.
Speaking in the Assembly, Nesbitt called encompass “Europe’s most comprehensive digital care record,” which allows health professionals to instantly share patient data as well as granting patients access to their health records, appointment letters and test results via the My Care app.
He said there has been mixed reception to encompass from hospital workers he has met, ranging from “extremely negative” to “particularly encouraging”.
“Yes, £360m is a lot of money. We reckon that encompass’ cash-releasing benefits will be £29.6m over the next number of years,” Nesbitt added.
He also said that “non-cash releasing benefits” of the system would eventually reach £51.4m.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health told The Irish News that nearly £326m has been spent on the 13.5-year programme so far, including £292.6m on capital spend, and £33m of revenue spend.
“Significant spend on updating our systems was unavoidable.
“Many of our current systems are very old and are coming to the end of their lifespan,” they added.
Epic and the Northern Ireland HSC partnered to build encompass and a phased implementation of the system began with the South Eastern Health and Care Trust in November 2023, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust in June 2024 and Northern Health and Social Care Trust in November 2024
The My Care portal was created to coincide with the move from paper patient records to electronic patient records through the encompass initiative.
Patients and service users are able to access their health information via the My Care app or web page by creating an account.
Meanwhile, Northern Ireland’s blood transfusion service migrated from its 15-year-old laboratory information system to Clinisys WinPath in June 2024, with the aim of creating a single technology platform.
