Palantir patient data tech rejected by many NHS trusts in England
Freedom of information responses show that many NHS trusts across England are declining to use Palantir's £330 million federated data platform, with health officials saying existing or alternative systems perform just as well or better. Some trusts have reported genuine benefits, including improved waiting list and surgery scheduling management, but adoption is far from uniform.
Why this matters: Palantir's contract to handle NHS patient data was always controversial. Critics worried that a US defence and intelligence firm should not sit at the centre of Britain's most sensitive health records. Now NHS trusts themselves are pushing back, not on privacy grounds but on simple value. If the platform is not clearly better than what they already have, that is a practical problem on top of the political one. The bigger issue is accountability: a £330 million public contract for patient data should have to justify itself clearly, and right now many of the people using it say it cannot.
Who should care: Healthcare professionals · Privacy officers · Compliance
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