Telefónica Tech UK&I has achieved a key milestone in the delivery of its five-year IT managed services contract supporting Encompose, the health and social care programme that will create a single digital care record for every citizen receiving health and social care in Northern Ireland.
The Belfast trust, the largest system of its kind in the UK, went live this month, replacing paper-based processes with the new digital patient record system. It follows South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust, the first trust to go live under the contract in November 2023, before being rolled out to all trusts in Northern Ireland over the next two years.
Employing 330 people in Belfast and creating 20 highly skilled, technically qualified local jobs to support this work, Telefónica Tech provides the strategic expertise of specialist IT hosting and managed services needed to underpin inclusivity.
This involves building and managing all backend IT infrastructure, including hosting and deployment of Epic, the market leading health record management software, and supporting its rollout to all health and social care trusts in Northern Ireland.
Ellen Dixon, vice president of enterprise health services at Telefonica Tech UK&I, said: “Encompass is a transformative project from an operational and healthcare perspective, with Northern Ireland becoming the first region in the UK where patients will have a single, integrated care record. This is a highly complex project and is crucial to the health and wellbeing of service users in Northern Ireland. Once rolled out across all trusts, it will require the highest levels of service to support the approximately 70,000 staff who will use the system. We are incredibly proud to be contributing to its rollout in Northern Ireland.” South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust and more recently Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, the largest health and social care trust in the UK.”
Dr Dermot Hughes, Senior Head of Inclusion Programmes, acknowledged Telefónica Tech's significant contribution to the success of Go Live. South Eastern Belfast Trust: “Telefonica Tech has been a major contributor to the successful rollout of the Epic Platform in Northern Ireland. Their dedicated, healthcare-focused team brought experience and collaborative partnership to a comprehensive programme. They have done so by growing the Belfast-based workforce and creating opportunities for all.”
Belfast-based Telefónica Tech UK&I has a dedicated Enterprise Health Services team providing IT managed services to major healthcare trusts across the UK and Ireland, including Cambridge University Hospitals Trust.
