Campaigners and Barts Health NHS Trust staff say the big data company, based in the US, is unfit to handle sensitive patient information and attacked it for providing surveillance technology to militaries and police forces, reports Sebastian Mann, Local Democracy Reporter
Campaigners across east London are calling on the NHS to terminate its £330million contract with US software giant Palantir.
They say the big data company, based in Florida, is unfit to handle sensitive patient information and attacked it for providing surveillance technology to militaries and police forces.
Palantir specialises in data integration and analytics, giving its clients – which include governments – the means to collate and break down information from numerous sources.
The company defends itself by saying its clients already have access to population data and there are privacy controls in place, but it has been criticised in the US for helping to expand surveillance and facial recognition technology.
The NHS has signed a £330m contract with Palantir to develop a federated data platform (FDP), which it says “connects vital health information across the NHS, helping staff deliver better care for patients and work more efficiently”.
However, Dr Juliette Brown, a consultant psychiatrist, said ahead of a protest in central London that the company’s values “run completely counter to the foundational principles of our NHS”.
In July, the government’s Health and Social Care Committee recommended that ministers exercise the February 2027 break clause over doubts regarding data security and public trust.
On Wednesday, 9th September, activists gathered outside Whipps Cross Hospital to protest the use of Palantir ahead of a meeting of Barts Health NHS Trust officials, who oversee the hospital.
They wanted Barts to put pressure on NHS England, which holds the contract.
A spokesperson for Barts said it was “committed to protecting the confidentiality of our patients”.
Protestors say the situation within the trust is “reaching a tipping point” after 500 staff members and patients signed a petition urging the NHS to reject the platform last May.
Since then, 2,000 people across east London have signed up to a service demanding the NHS “says no to Palantir”.
The email system, set up by the Good Law Project and Just Treatment, runs a postcode-based search to see if their local NHS branch was using Palantir and, if it was, an email would be sent demanding an end.
More than 80,000 emails have been sent, according to the site.
“It is clear that Palantir is neither all-seeing nor indestructible, but they will not disappear on their own,” said Wayne Farah, a full-time carer with more than 20 years’ experience as a non-executive director of NHS boards.
The spokesperson for Barts said in full: “We are committed to protecting the confidentiality of our patients and conducted a full data protection review before implementing the Care Co-ordination Solution.
“We will continue to listen to and raise concerns from our community, while maintaining our duty to provide safe and effective patient care.”
The “No Palantir in the NHS” will take place outside Royal London Hospital, in Whitechapel, at 5pm on Thursday, 1st October.
Palantir was approached for comment.
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