NHS trusts said to benefit from Palantir platform say they don’t use it

The Guardian reports that 29 NHS hospital trusts listed by NHS England as “realising benefits” from Palantir’s federated data platform say the system is either not live or that they are not using any of its applications. The findings come from freedom of information requests and add pressure on the government over the contract with the US technology company.

What happened

The federated data platform, known as the FDP, is the government’s flagship AI system for the NHS. According to The Guardian, it aims to connect scattered medical files, speed up hospital discharges and improve surgery scheduling. Palantir’s contract to deliver it began in 2024.

NHS England states on its website that 137 trusts are “live” with the FDP. The medical charity Medact, which is campaigning for Palantir to be removed from the NHS, sent more than 100 freedom of information requests to trusts and shared the responses with The Guardian. Of the trusts NHS England describes as “realising benefits”, 29 said they were either not using the system or not using its apps.

Several trusts were direct in their replies. Epsom and St Helier said it was “not using FDP at the moment”. Kent and Medway said the trust “has been focused on other priorities … the FDP is not currently live”. Mersey Care said it had “not yet gone live with the FDP”, and Nottingham University Hospitals said “no implementation timeline has been agreed”. University Hospitals of North Midlands said: “FDP is not live. We do not intend to roll it out in the future.”

The Guardian reports that one senior health official called the gap between NHS England’s claim and the trusts’ own accounts “very misleading”. Marc Farr, chair of the NHS Chief Data and Analytics Officers Network, said it was “crucial for public support … that benefits are reported accurately, transparently and in a way that can be properly verified.”

NHS England told The Guardian that nearly 140 trusts “have now reported benefits from the wide range of tools available on the platform”. It has previously said its list includes trusts using the tools for back office data analysis and submission rather than patient care. The Guardian gives the example of Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust, which said it is “not currently operationally using the FDP” but is recorded as “live” because infrastructure is in place “to support data submission”.

A Palantir spokesperson said trusts using its software had recorded 117,000 additional operations, a 14.3% reduction in discharge delays for long stay patients and a 5.6% improvement in the number of people finding out whether or not they have cancer within 28 days. NHS England has separately claimed that 117,539 more operations were carried out by trusts using the FDP in a year, but The Guardian notes that this summer it conceded it could not prove cause and effect.

Why it matters if you live in United Kingdom

If you use the NHS, your medical records are part of the system the FDP is designed to connect. The question of which company handles that data, and how its value is measured, affects every patient. The Guardian lists a related report that more than 44,000 people have filed legal objections to the Palantir platform handling their data, which shows how many residents feel strongly about it.

The story also matters for anyone who wants to judge how public money and public statistics are used. The Office for Statistics Regulation, the official watchdog, previously investigated NHS England’s operations figure. It told The Guardian it will now be “taking this forward under our casework function” in relation to the “realising benefits” claim.

For voters, this is a live political issue. The health secretary, Yvette Cooper, faces calls from MPs and campaigners to end the contract. Chi Onwurah, chair of the Commons science and technology committee, said that if many trusts do not see the value of the FDP, “serious questions need to be asked about whether the hype surrounding Palantir’s products matches reality.” She called on the government to use the 2027 break clause in the contract and run an open competition for a UK-owned and based supplier. The Commons health select committee is also calling for ministers to pull the deal.

Palantir rejects the criticism. Its UK and Europe chief executive, Louis Mosley, said ending the contract would be “putting politics above patients”. The company has hired Tom Watson, Labour’s former deputy leader and a member of the House of Lords, as a full-time senior lobbyist. The Guardian reports that Watson and Mosley have written to critical MPs in letters counting how often they had spoken against the company, which Labour MP Clive Lewis described as “very Big Brother”.

What to watch next

The main decision point is the 2027 break clause. Ministers will be under growing pressure from two Commons committees, campaigners and some health data leaders to use it. Medact’s Dr Rhiannon Mihranian Osborne asked whether ministers are “being misled” if they rely on these claims to make their decision.

Watch for the outcome of the Office for Statistics Regulation’s casework, which could shape how NHS England reports the platform’s benefits in future. Also look out for any change to the way NHS England describes trusts as “live” or “realising benefits”, and for further responses from individual trusts about whether they plan to adopt the system.

If you have concerns about how your health data is used, keep an eye on official NHS guidance and on how the government responds to the committees’ calls.

Source: The Guardian