NI Health Minister apologises for thousands of missing patient letters

By Bairbre Holmes, Press Association

The NI Health Minister has apologised after thousands of letters to patients went missing from Northern Ireland’s new patient record system.

Around 12,000 pieces of correspondence disappeared from the Encompass system, the Assembly heard on Tuesday.

They were meant for patients who had been referred to consultants by their GPs, including “red flag” cases which should be treated with the highest priority.

Mike Nesbitt said the letters were “rejections” from consultants who had deemed they did not need to see the patients.

He said an investigation is ongoing but added: “There were failures within the process, and I accept that and apologise for it.

“No physical harm was done, but obviously if you are waiting for the result of your referral and your GP assumes that you’ve already got that information, that is just not an acceptable situation.”

The UUP MLA said two “fail-safes” in the Encompass system had not worked, adding: “By definition they are not fail-safes”.

When it was launched in May 2025, Nesbitt said the integrated care record system would put Northern Ireland at the “forefront of health service delivery”.

It is described as a clinically and operationally led integrated care record system which allows for a single digital record for every citizen in Northern Ireland who receives health and social care.

Alliance Party MLA Stewart Dickson raised the issue with Nesbitt during questions for the Health Minister in the Assembly.

He said the regional Encompass team had written to GPs “expressing concern that some 12,000 red-flag letters and other pieces of correspondence just seem to have gone missing from the system”, describing it as a matter of serious concern.