Seskinore baby makes history with his arrival into the world

A NEW born from Seskinore has made history as the first baby in the Western Trust to have a fully digital health record, arriving just ten minutes after the Trust’s new electronic system went live.

Baby boy Crawford was born at South West Acute Hospital (SWAH) last Thursday morning, weighing a healthy eight pounds and 15 ounces.

The SWAH maternity team celebrated the special moment, marking not only the arrival of a new life but also a new era in local healthcare.

The birth coincided almost exactly with the launch of ‘encompass’, a state-of-the-art digital health record system, in both the Western and Southern Trust areas.

This means that, for the first time, all health and social care trusts across the North are now integrated into one digital system,.

Western Trust chief executive, Neil Guckian, paid tribute to staff as both the Western and Southern Trust went live at 4am last Thursday morning.

He said: “Preparing for ‘encompass’ has been an immense task and no one should underestimate the incredible effort of all staff from across our Trust for the many months of planning, preparing and training to get us ready for Go-Live.”

Health Minister Mike Nesbitt said: “This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity and has allowed Northern Ireland to modernise our systems and fundamentally improve how we deliver care.”