Palantir’s NHS platform expands into GP patient data sharing
Patient data from five GP surgeries in England is being fed into the NHS’s Palantir-built data platform, pushing the US firm’s reach beyond its initial remit of hospital operations into local surgeries.
NHS Cheshire and Merseyside, one of England’s largest Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), is overseeing the move onto Palantir’s Federated Data Platform (FDP). An internal NHS note seen by the Financial Times called it a “significant milestone”.
The FDP is a software predominantly used in hospital trusts and designed to untangle NHS datasets and clear hospital backlogs. Morning Wire revealed in August that just one product in Palantir’s FDP had cut discharge delay days by up to 28 per cent.
Palantir said it was “proud” its software was “helping to improve patient care nationally”.
Under the Cheshire and Merseyside pilot, data from five GP practices will be used to help the ICB understand and manage the health needs of its patient population.
Patient data is pseudonymised through a third party before entering the system, although it is unclear whether patients consent before it is shared.
An NHS spokesperson said ICBs can access GP data “where they have data-sharing agreements in place”.
Some 35 ICBs in England are now signed up to the FDP, although not all use it to collect patient data for population health management.
The pilot also appears to mark a shift from assurances given by the former Conservative government in 2023, when ministers told parliament that “GP data will not be part of the national platform”.
FDP contract faces political and public backlash
Palantir won NHS England’s £330m FDP contract in 2023. The deal has since faced sustained criticism over the company’s ties to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the American military, alongside fears of vendor lock-in and a notorious ‘land-and-expand’ business model, in which it strikes small deals before expanding its reach across industries.
In August, the government increased the projected whole-life cost of FDP to £1.1bn, while cutting forecast benefits to £808m – a combined swing of £1.7bn from the figures given a year earlier.
Health innovation minister James Frith said in August that he was worried about the effect the contract “could have on people’s willingness to share data with the NHS”.
Some 60,000 people opted out of sharing their data via the national data opt-out between mid-May and mid-July.
Palantir said “our role is to provide software. How that software is used is entirely under the control of the NHS with data only able to be processed in accordance with their strict instructions”.