Palantir patient data tech rejected by many NHS trusts in England

Exclusive: health bodies across country say controversial US firm’s data platform no better than systems already in use

NHS organisations that care for millions of people in England are rejecting Palantir’s patient data technology, according to freedom of information responses that reveal health bosses believe they can find better or equal alternatives in many cases.

Some health bodies said the £330m federated data platform (FDP) operated by the controversial US company had made it easier to manage waiting lists and has improved surgery scheduling. But, from Gateshead to Truro, others said they were declining to use it or had carried out trials and reverted to old systems. A Suffolk trust said other systems “supercede” the FDP’s functionality, while Greater Manchester’s care board called the Palantir system “duplicative” and “retrograde”.

The responses come as Andy Burnham’s government faces a crunch decision about whether to exercise a break clause in the seven-year NHS-Palantir deal, which was intended to better integrate the health system’s data to improve clinical accuracy and efficiency. Protests against the US firm’s role have also focused on its other contracts with the Israeli military and Donald Trump’s homeland security forces. There is also dispute over evidence for the system’s effectiveness and public concern about the involvement in the NHS of a company cofounded by the tech billionaire Peter Thiel, who said in 2023: “The NHS makes people sick.”

According to more than two dozen FOI responses reviewed by the Guardian, 16 trusts and health boards declared they do not use it, following its introduction in March 2024. They include the University hospitals of North Midlands NHS trust, which said it will not use it primarily because “it does not appear to provide functionality over and above what we have already” and Dorset HealthCare university trust said it “will not be adopting or going live with the FDP”. Humber Teaching NHS foundation trust said: “We have no plans to use it.”

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS foundation trust said it has used the system but it has “not offered significant improvements on local systems”. Avon and Wiltshire mental health partnership NHS trust said it had yet to find an FDP tool that offered significantly more than its existing capabilities and University hospitals Birmingham NHS foundation trust, which cares for more than 2 million people, said it had no plans to use it, citing “limited expected benefit over existing solutions”. The FOIs were gathered by Medact, a health campaign that opposes Palantir’s role in the NHS, and posted to a public transparency website, WhatDoTheyKnow.

Palantir has previously challenged claims that other software could be just as effective, with its senior vice-president, the former Labour MP Tom Watson, saying last week : “If there are companies that can do it, they would have taken part in free and open competition” to run the FDP.

Watson, a Labour peer and former minister alongside Burnham, was appointed as Palantir’s chief lobbyist last month amid a wave of opposition to the Palantir deal.