{"id":1001742,"date":"2026-06-03T02:33:26","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T02:33:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1001742\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T02:33:26","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T02:33:26","slug":"health-minister-apologises-for-thousands-of-missing-patient-letters-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1001742\/","title":{"rendered":"Health Minister apologises for thousands of missing patient letters \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The Health Minister has apologised after thousands of letters to patients went missing from Northern Ireland\u2019s new patient record system.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Around 12,000 pieces of correspondence disappeared from the Encompass system, the Assembly heard on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">They were meant for patients who had been referred to consultants by their GPs, including \u201cred flag\u201d cases which should be treated with the highest priority.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/tags\/mike-nesbitt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/tags\/mike-nesbitt\">Mike Nesbitt<\/a> said the letters were \u201crejections\u201d from consultants who had deemed they did not need to see the patients.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/news\/northern-ireland\/call-for-change-in-law-after-near-take-over-of-co-antrim-car-park-QPJM5KI4O5BEBIKWN76KDK6QBQ\/\" aria-hidden=\"true\" tabindex=\"-1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Call for change in law after near take over of Co Antrim car park \" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/LFHE5IKQKRF4JEHJJTQWUKL5VQ.jpg\"  width=\"800\" height=\"450\"\/><\/a><a class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/news\/northern-ireland\/flags-and-bunting-appear-as-belfast-community-gets-ready-for-world-cup-street-party-DCN4OFYD6ZHAZK3LQEA2SVEFKI\/\" aria-hidden=\"true\" tabindex=\"-1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Flags and bunting appear as Belfast community gets ready for well loved World Cup street party\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Y5P4LSVVQJAI7D2BFLZVI4I7PI.JPG\"  width=\"800\" height=\"450\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">He said an investigation is ongoing but added: \u201cThere were failures within the process, and I accept that and apologise for it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cNo physical harm was done, but obviously if you are waiting for the result of your referral and your GP assumes that you\u2019ve already got that information, that is just not an acceptable situation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/tags\/ulster-unionist-party\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/tags\/ulster-unionist-party\">UUP<\/a> MLA said two \u201cfail-safes\u201d in the Encompass system had not worked, adding: \u201cBy definition they are not fail-safes\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">When it was launched in May 2025, Mr Nesbitt said the integrated care record system would put Northern Ireland at the \u201cforefront of health service delivery\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Alliance Party MLA Stewart Dickson raised the issue with Mr Nesbitt during questions for the Health Minister in the Assembly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">He said the regional Encompass team had written to GPs \u201cexpressing concern that some 12,000 red-flag letters and other pieces of correspondence just seem to have gone missing from the system\u201d, describing it as a matter of serious concern.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Health Minister has apologised after thousands of letters to patients went missing from Northern Ireland\u2019s new patient&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1001743,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5011],"tags":[133531,105,23524,1144,16,7913,15],"class_list":["post-1001742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-northern-ireland","tag-assembly","tag-health","tag-mike-nesbitt","tag-northern-ireland","tag-uk","tag-ulster","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116683841671638783","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1001742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1001742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1001742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1001743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1001742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1001742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1001742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}