
NHS England deletes âÂÂmisleadingâ claim 137 trusts benefiting from Palantir AI tools
Exclusive: The Guardian revealed 29 hospital trusts were not or hardly using the controversial patient data tech
NHS England has deleted a claim from its website stating 137 hospital trusts are benefiting from PalantirâÂÂs AI health data system after the Guardian revealed 29 of them were not using all or most of the controversial technology.
Health bosses had published a list of all the NHS bodies âÂÂliveâ with and âÂÂrealising benefitsâ from the AI-powered federated data platform (FDP), a system set up to improve patient outcomes, boost operating theatre efficiency and speed up bed discharges. But after 29 trusts said it was either not live or they were not using any of its applications, the original list of hospitals appears to have been taken down.
The move comes as ministers weigh up whether to extend PalantirâÂÂs ã330m contract to 2029 and after the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) said it was examining the NHS claims about the extent of the systemâÂÂs use, which critics say make it appear more embedded in the health service than it actually is.
A less detailed page now says early users were âÂÂalready seeing real results â reduced admin, faster patient pathways, and more time for careâÂÂ. A senior Labour MP, calling for the contract to be scrapped, warned the move threatened public trust.
Palantir was hired to help manage vast quantities of medical data held by NHS England but campaigners, MPs and doctorsâ unions want the deal scrapped â often arguing its effectiveness has been overstated. NHS England was previously warned by the OSR that it has no evidence to support a claim that the technology has helped deliver more than 100,000 extra operations.
Some Palantir opponents also object to the presence in the health service of a company, founded by the Donald Trump-supporting billionaire Peter Thiel, which also works for the Israeli military and the US administrationâÂÂs ICE immigration crackdown.
The Labour MP Ben Coleman, a member of the Commons health and social care select committee, said it was âÂÂtroublingâ that NHS England had listed the 137 trusts as benefiting from FDP, but then âÂÂapparently pulled the list when 29 said they werenâÂÂt using all or most of itâÂÂ.
âÂÂWhen NHS England makes claims like this without checking them, it destroys trust â and it has happened before,â he added. âÂÂThe statistics watchdog warned there was no evidence for the NHSâÂÂs claim of 117,000 extra operations due to the FDP. This latest overclaim could put more hospitals off using the FDP and threaten its viability.âÂÂ
Coleman wants the NHS to drop Palantir and develop an open platform for health data on which NHS trusts and British tech companies can build tools instead.
The decision to take down the list of NHS trusts came after the Medact campaign group researched the use of PalantirâÂÂs technology by sending freedom of information requests to every hospital and integrated care board in England.
âÂÂItâÂÂs a relief to see these webpages taken down, but this has only happened after multiple investigations exposed the misleading nature of NHS EnglandâÂÂs claims,â said Rhiannon Mihranian Osborne, an NHS doctor and Medact spokesperson. âÂÂThe question remains, why did NHSE [NHS England] spend years using shaky evidence to promote the alleged âÂÂbenefitsâ of Palantir software?âÂÂ
Last week it was reported ministers planned to extend PalantirâÂÂs deal, amid intense lobbying. The US company has hired the Labour peer Tom Watson as a full-time lobbyist and he recently wrote to Yvette Cooper, the health secretary, saying Palantir wanted to help âÂÂbuild BritainâÂÂs sovereign technological capabilityâÂÂ.
Meanwhile, the health workersâ union Unison has called on ministers to instead end the contract with its general secretary, Andrea Egan, telling the Guardian any decision to extend the deal would be âÂÂcompletely unacceptable and a betrayal of staff and patientsâÂÂ.
Palantir has said ending its contract would be âÂÂputting politics above patientsâÂÂ, but Egan called it a âÂÂsinister American surveillance firmâÂÂ, and said that allowing it to hold a vital NHS contract âÂÂsurrenders sovereignty over our most sensitive data and poses security risksâÂÂ.
Groups including the Doctors Association UK, Medact, a health justice campaign group, Amnesty UK and Just Treatment, a patientsâ group, have also this week written to the prime minister, Andy Burnham, and Cooper opposing LabourâÂÂs reported plan to give Palantir a further two years to allow time for a transition to UK-based technology.
They say the deal could be safely ended in 2027 using an aspect of the contract called the âÂÂtermination assistance periodâ to allow NHS trusts to transition away from PalantirâÂÂs technology.
âÂÂMinisters could risk looking as if they were saying one thing and doing another if they said they were planning for a future without Palantir while simultaneously handing it two more years to embed itself further into our health service,â the group said.
NHS England did not respond to requests for comment.
