In the Guardian today:
MPs have queued up to demand the government scraps its £330m NHS contract with the spy-tech company Palantir, calling it “dreadful” and “shameful” in a debate on Thursday, after which the government said it was “no fan” of the US company’s politics.
Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs led the calls for Palantir, which also works for Donald Trump’s ICE immigration crackdown and the Israeli military, to be removed as a supplier to the NHS federated data platform (FDP), with one Labour backbencher, Samantha Niblett, questioning whether it could be “trusted as a custodian of the intimate health records of tens of millions of British citizens”.
There’s no sign of any Scottish Labour MPS ‘queuing up.’
As Mandelson case exposes the risks of using US company Palantir for health data, how Nicola Sturgeon’s government made sure it didn’t happen in Scotland two years ago
In August 2024, the BMJ warned:
NHS England must cancel its contract with Palantir – Patients and campaigners have been raising concerns about Palantir’s creeping involvement with the NHS for years based on concerns about ethics, outsourcing, and privacy. The tech company has a long and controversial history of supporting predictive policing, deportations, state surveillance, and drone strikes in Iraq and Afghanistan.
NHS England risks further losing the trust of health workers, patients, and the public if it continues with this contract with Palantir. On 3 April 2024, more than 100 health workers, patients, and allies picketed the offices of NHS England to demand that the contract is cancelled.
Outrage from health workers, patients, and the public will only grow as further atrocities are committed by the IOF. If NHS England is to recover its own reputation and maintain public trust in health data systems, it must cancel the contract with Palantir. Patients and campaigners have been raising concerns about Palantir’s creeping involvement with the NHS for years based on concerns about ethics, outsourcing, and privacy. The tech company has a long and controversial history of supporting predictive policing, deportations, state surveillance, and drone strikes in Iraq and Afghanistan.15
NHS England risks further losing the trust of health workers, patients, and the public if it continues with this contract with Palantir. On 3 April 2024, more than 100 health workers, patients, and allies picketed the offices of NHS England to demand that the contract is cancelled.
Outrage from health workers, patients, and the public will only grow as further atrocities are committed by the IOF. If NHS England is to recover its own reputation and maintain public trust in health data systems, it must cancel the contract with Palantir. https://www.bmj.com/content/386/bmj.q1712
In 2023, the Scottish Government rejected pressure from the Secretary of State for Scotland to follow NHS England’s lead and rejected Palantir, adopting instead as partners, AstraZeneca UK and Lenus Health.
You can read the full proposal at: https://www.digitalhealth.net/2022/12/scotland-gets-national-digital-platform-to-improve-data-access/ and the memorandum of understanding with university and industry partners at: https://www.digitalhealth.net/2022/09/nhs-scotland-set-for-transformation-with-new-collaboration/
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