29 NHS trusts have not launched or do not use Palantir system — The Guardian

In the United Kingdom, 29 hospital trusts that NHS England publicly listed as organisations benefiting from Palantir's data platform said that the system has not been launched or that they do not use its applications. This was reported by The Guardian following more than 100 freedom of information requests.

The issue concerns the Federated Data Platform (FDP), a data platform for which the US company Palantir received a contract worth £330 million. It is intended to connect fragmented health data, help speed up patient discharges and plan operations.

Trust responses

NHS England states on its website that 137 trusts have live status in FDP. However, 29 organisations on the list of those that, according to the service, benefit from the platform replied that they do not use the system or its applications.

In particular, Epsom and St Helier said that it is not currently using FDP. Kent and Medway stated that it had focused on other priorities and that the platform has not been launched there. Mersey Care has also not yet put it into operation, Nottingham University Hospitals has not agreed an implementation schedule, and University Hospitals of North Midlands said that it does not plan to deploy the system in the future.

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NHS England's position

NHS England said that almost 140 trusts reported benefits from various platform tools that help staff coordinate work, improve patient care and work more efficiently. Previously, the service explained that the list also includes institutions that use tools for internal data analysis and reporting rather than directly to support treatment.

For example, Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust said that it does not use FDP in operational work. At the same time, NHS England considers the trust active because infrastructure for data transfer has been created there. According to The Guardian, some trusts that do not use FDP fully may use limited system functions to calculate treatment costs.

Previously, NHS England said that trusts using FDP carried out 117,539 more operations over a year. The agency acknowledged that it cannot prove a causal link between the platform and this figure. The Office for Statistics Regulation said it would examine the claim about trusts benefiting from FDP as part of its work.