NHS hospitals 'should resist Palantir software rollout'

 Hospitals in England have been urged to block the implementation of software developed by controversial tech firm Palantir by a coalition of patient, healthcare, worker, trade union, and consumer rights groups.

Their call to action follows a move by the UK government to ask hospitals to sign a memorandum of understanding to start using elements of Palantir's federated data platform (FDP), designed to bring together and manage existing NHS data into a single framework, from next month.

In an email to hospitals – seen by the BMJ and Guardian – groups including Amnesty International, the Good Law Project, Privacy International, Just Treatment, Corporate Watch, the United Tech and Allied Workers Union, and health justice activist charity Medact have told hospitals that implanting the FDP is not mandatory, and local health bodies can both raise concerns and decline to implement the platform.

They also point out that NHS England can choose not to extend the £330 million national contract with Palantir beyond the initial three-year contract, and have urged it to terminate the contract when it expires next February.

Medact has also published a briefing on the coalition's concerns about the use of Palantir tech in NHS data systems, which maintains that it could damage public trust in the health service, has inadequate clarity on data management and privacy safeguards, and could also be used to enable "data-driven state abuses of power."

It points out, for example, that ICE in the US is using Palantir software and data to track people down in its immigration crackdown.

The Reform UK party – currently leading polls of voter intention in the UK – has indicated it wants to set up a Deportation Command that would integrate and use data from multiple government departments to identify and deport "illegal migrants," but has denied it will use the FDP in this way. Palantir software is also being used by UK police forces and the Ministry of Defence.

According to Medact, more than 50,000 patients have already written to the boards of their local NHS trusts asking them not to accept the FDP.

Palantir is chaired by Donald Trump ally and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, who has said publicly he believes the NHS should be privatised, and that has led to concerns about handing over detailed patient data to an overseas company that some claim has a chequered ethical record.

Medact lists a string of allegations of complicity in human rights abuses by Palantir in its report, including military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, policing activities in the US and UK, the actions of ICE in the US, such as forcibly separating unaccompanied children from their parents, and Israel's actions in Gaza and other Palestinian territories.

The group wants NHS Trust Boards, Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), Health Scrutiny Committees, and Health Data Governance Committees in England to refuse to implement the FDP or any other Palantir product and write to the government explaining their reasoning.

It also wants them to look into in-house and/or open-source software "as a first priority for data solutions."

Palantir insisted that its software is "helping to deliver 100,000 additional operations, a 12% reduction in discharge delays, and the removal of 675,000 patients from waiting lists," adding that how the data is used is entirely under the control of the NHS.

Meanwhile, NHS England said 150 NHS organisations are already using the FDP, with more than 50 others due to start doing so in the coming months, and it is "helping to join up care, increase hospital productivity, speed up cancer diagnosis, and ensure thousands of additional patients can be treated each month."

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