GP data secretly added to Palantir’s NHS platform: report
Key Points
- Five Cheshire and Merseyside GP practices are sharing patient records with the local Federated Data Platform
- NHS England said in 2023 that GP data would not form part of the national platform
- Two Commons committees have urged ministers to use the February 2027 break clause
- Health minister James Frith linked a 60,000 rise in data opt-outs to mistrust of Palantir
- Palantir said the NHS controls how its software processes data
Five GP practices in Cheshire and Merseyside have started sharing patient records with the NHS’s £330 million Palantir-built Federated Data Platform, the Financial Times reports.
NHS Cheshire and Merseyside, the integrated care board for the region, has overseen the pilot through its local version of the platform, and an internal NHS briefing seen by the FT called it a “significant milestone for the FDP”.
Officials told the paper the pilot involves only the local system and not the national platform that ministers discussed in parliament when the contract was awarded.
NHS England’s own Federated Data Platform update, published when the contract went to a Palantir-led consortium in November 2023, stated that GP data would not form part of the national platform, while adding that local NHS bodies with existing data-sharing agreements could use their local version of the FDP for care coordination.
GP records hold the fullest picture of a person’s long-term health, covering diagnoses, prescriptions and referrals across years rather than the episode-level data hospitals generate. The platform has so far served mainly as an operational tool for hospitals, covering areas such as bed management, discharge planning and waiting lists.
MPs push for end to Palantir contract
MPs have urged the government to exercise the February 2027 break clause in its Palantir contract and drop the NHS Federated Data Platform (FDP) in favour of an alternative.
The Health and Social Care Committee set out its position in a letter to Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health Innovation and Safety Preet Kaur Gill, sent in July, following an evidence session on the platform.
The cross-party Committee backed a recommendation from the Science and Technology Committee that the government should commit to exercising the break clause and either develop an in-house replacement or seek an alternative from UK-owned and UK-based providers.
The Committee cited “serious mistrust” of the Palantir-built platform among both the general public and the medical profession.
It warned that concerns over how NHS data is used, managed and shared could deter patients from sharing their medical information, limiting the health service’s ability to deliver its shift from analogue to digital, including through the FDP and the Single Patient Record.
The letter also challenged the evidence behind the platform’s reported benefits.
