Palantir: Coalition urges NHS organisations to refuse to use controversial tech giant’s software

Every hospital in England has been urged to disobey an NHS directive to use software operated by controversial US analytics software company Palantir. A coalition of human rights, health and patient organisations, and unions sent out the plea to NHS trusts by email, out of concern over Palantir’s federated data platform (FDP). They urged hospitals to not follow NHS England’s instructions to sign a memorandum of understanding to use the FDP, as set out in planning guidance issued in October.1 This guidance said all trusts should be using FDP “core products” from April, although this, NHS sources indicated, was a policy decision rather than an enforceable instruction. The FDP was created during the covid pandemic with the aim of helping manage a federalised, siloed health service at a time of national crisis. Palantir won the now £1bn contract to supply the service using its Foundry software, a platform that can connect incompatible databases and allows customers to integrate and analyse data from across many different sources.23 In the post-covid NHS this involves monitoring things such as waiting lists, hospital supplies, and available beds and operating theatres. But a new briefing document from the health worker campaign group Medact, called Concerns Regarding Palantir Technologies in NHS Data Systems ,4 emphasises that hospitals have the ability to refuse NHS England’s directive and urges them …