NHS Faces Criticism for Awarding Data Management Contract to US Tech Giant
NHS England has awarded a contract worth up to £330 million, to US-based data analytics company Palantir. The company, which is part-owned by tech investor Peter Thiel, a close ally of US President Donald Trump, has previously drawn criticism over privacy and ethics concerns.
The platform is designed to bring together health service information across boards for analysis and to improve the service of care the NHS can deliver. However, critics argue they are concerned about data protection, privacy and the ethical use of sensitive public sector and healthcare information by large tech companies.
The federated data platform reviews important metrics across NHS services including waiting lists, hospital capacity and patient pathways to allow the appropriate allocation of NHS resources.
However, both NHS staff and campaigners have voiced concerns about the contract being managed by the US tech giant.
Doctor, researcher and political campaigner, Dr Rhiannon Mihranian Osborne commented she was: “horrified” by Palantir’s involvement in the scheme as it “could seriously damage trust in our health system”.
Osborne commented: “NHS analysts have told us the software offers nothing special, implementation costs are spiralling and the drive to adopt Palantir tech risks pushing out local, trusted data solutions”.
Campaigner group Medact have created a briefing for NHS stakeholders outlining their extensive concerns about the platform, including issues relating to public trust, and institutional risks, as well as broader unethical practice concerns about Palantir.
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Palantir told Sky News its software “is playing an important role in improving patient care – helping to deliver 100,000 additional operations, a 12% reduction in discharge delays and the removal of 675,000 patients from waiting lists”.
Palantir suggested they have no intention of using the data for anything other than its intended purposes by the NHS, with all data remaining under the NHS’ control.
An NHS spokesperson defended the contract, telling Sky News that the platform is “delivering huge benefits for patients and the NHS, joining up care, speeding up cancer diagnosis and ensuring thousands of additional patients can be treated each month”.
The integration of the FDP platform is part of the NHS’ broader plans to modernise care and utilise data to improve health outcomes for patients.
It remains to be seen whether the NHS will be swayed by public opinion.
