Belfast IT firm supports encompass in the roll-out of digital patient records in Northern Ireland

A Northern Ireland IT service management firm has won a major healthcare contract which has resulted in the creation of 20 new jobs.

Belfast-based Telefónica Tech UK&I has reached a significant milestone in its delivery of a five-year IT managed services contract to support encompass, the health and social care programme that is creating a single digital care record for every citizen who receives health and social care in Northern Ireland.

Telefónica Tech, which employs 330 people in Belfast and has created 20 highly skilled and technically accredited locally-based jobs to support the work, is providing the specialist IT hosting and managed services strategic expertise required to underpin encompass.

Thanks to Belfast's Telefónica Tech UK&I the Belfast Trust went live this month, replacing paper processes with the new digital patient record system. Pictured is The Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast

This involved building and managing all of the back-end IT infrastructure, including for the hosting and deployment of Epic, the market-leading health record management software, and then supporting the roll-out to all Health and Social Care Trusts in Northern Ireland.

Belfast Trust, the largest of its kind in the UK, went live this month, replacing paper processes with the new digital patient record system. It follows the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust, which was the first Trust to Go-Live under the contract in November 2023, with encompass then rolling out across all Trusts in Northern Ireland over a two-year period.

Ellen Dickson, VP, enterprise health services at Telefónica Tech UK&I, said: “encompass is a transformational project from an operational and medical point of view, making Northern Ireland the first part of the UK where patients have a single integrated care record.

"It is a highly complex project and critical to the health and wellbeing of service users in Northern Ireland. It will require the highest levels of service to support the approximately 70,000 staff members who will use the system once it is implemented across all the Trusts. We are very proud to contribute to its implementation in the South Eastern Health & Social Care Trust, and most recently in the Belfast Health & Social Care Trust, the largest Trust of its kind in the UK."

Dr. Dermot Hughes, the senior responsible owner for the encompass programme, recognised the significant contributions of Telefónica Tech to the successful go-live at South Eastern and Belfast Trust: “Telefónica Tech have contributed significantly to the successful implementation of the Epic Platform in Northern Ireland.

"Their dedicated Healthcare focused team have brought experience and a collegiate partnership to the encompass programme. They have grown their Belfast based workforce and have done so by opening opportunities to all.”

Belfast-based Telefónica Tech UK&I has a dedicated team for enterprise health services and provides IT managed services to major health trusts across the UK and Ireland, including Cambridge University Hospitals Trust.