Debate contribution: Encompass: Update
Debate contribution by Mr Mike Nesbitt on .
- MLA
- Mr Mike Nesbitt
- Party at the time
- Ulster Unionist Party
- Date
- 17 June 2025
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Encompass: Update
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5013817
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Encompass successfully went live in the Southern Trust and the Western Trust on 8 May. This is the first time in the history of Northern Ireland that all five geographically defined trusts have been integrated into one digital system. It is a major transformational change that will empower patients and improve access to care. Used properly, Encompass will deliver improvements to care quality and productivity. It will ensure that staff have timely access to health information, while supporting safer and more effective care delivery. Encompass is Europe’s most comprehensive digital care record, comprising acute, community and social care, social work and mental health care. With the system now operational across Northern Ireland, all patients and service users will be able to securely access a subset of their health record, such as clinical letters, medication details and some test results via the My Care patient portal. They can also view appointments and track the progress of their treatment. My Care is already providing secure access to personal health information for over 150,000 users. The Encompass system also offers the seamless sharing of patient and service user data with authorised colleagues across the Health and Social Care (HSC) network. Key integrations include systems for routing letters, imaging and lab results to GPs; ambulance booking and arrival management services; regional radiology and digital pathology services; and the Northern Ireland pathology information management system for laboratories. Encompass continues to collaborate with senior trust information risk owners, the Information Governance Advisory Council (IGAC), the Information Commissioner's Office and other key stakeholders to ensure that benefits are being realised across the region within the framework of continuity of care, patient safety, information governance and cybersecurity.
279 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.02 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- No identity-based framing was identified (1.00).
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.02 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.01 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.01 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.01 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.02 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.38 | No |
| Overall judgement | 0.02 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 1.00 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-related subject | 0.95 |
| Disability (including neurodivergence and mental health), disabled people and disability or sickness benefits | 0.05 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
| Parades, bonfires and commemorations | 0.00 |
| Irish language, Ulster-Scots and language policy | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:48 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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