Twenty-nine hospital trusts that NHS England lists as “realising benefits” from Palantir’s data platform say they are not using all or most of it. The finding comes from more than 100 freedom of information requests reported by the Guardian.
The £330m federated data platform, known as the FDP, runs on Palantir’s AI-powered software. It aims to link scattered medical files, speed up hospital discharges and improve surgery scheduling.
NHS England says on its website that 137 trusts are “live” with the platform. Of the trusts it describes as realising benefits, 29 said the system was not live or that they were not using its apps.
What the Hospital Trusts Said
Epsom and St Helier said it was “not using FDP at the moment.” Mersey Care said it had “not yet gone live with the FDP.”
Kent and Medway said the trust “has been focused on other priorities” and that the FDP “is not currently live.” Nottingham University Hospitals said “no implementation timeline has been agreed.”
University Hospitals of North Midlands gave the firmest answer. It said: “FDP is not live. We do not intend to roll it out in the future.”
One senior health official called the gap between the NHS claim and the trusts’ answers “very misleading.” Marc Farr, chair of the NHS Chief Data and Analytics Officers Network, said benefits must be reported “accurately, transparently and in a way that can be properly verified.”
The requests were obtained by Medact, a medical charity that wants Palantir removed from the NHS. Its spokesperson, Dr Rhiannon Mihranian Osborne, accused NHS institutions of using “creative accounting” to justify the contract.
Pressure Grows on the Contract
Health Secretary Yvette Cooper faces calls from MPs and campaigners to end the contract, which began in 2024. The Commons health select committee has also called on ministers to pull the deal.
Chi Onwurah, chair of the Commons science and technology committee, urged the government to use a 2027 break clause in the contract. She called for an open competition to find a UK-owned and based supplier for patient records.
NHS England has faced earlier questions over its data. It claimed trusts using the FDP carried out 117,539 more operations in a year, but this summer it admitted it could not prove cause and effect.
The Office for Statistics Regulation looked into that claim. On the new “realising benefits” figures, the watchdog said it will take the matter “forward under our casework function.”
NHS England said nearly 140 trusts “have now reported benefits” from tools on the platform. It has said before that its list includes trusts using the tools for back office data work rather than patient care.
Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust said it is “not currently operationally using the FDP.” NHS England lists it as live because infrastructure is in place “to support data submission, rather than active operational use of FDP apps.”
Palantir’s UK and Europe chief executive, Louis Mosley, said ending the contract would be “putting politics above patients.” Last month the company hired former Labour deputy leader Tom Watson as a full-time senior lobbyist, and he has posted videos on X to rebut what he calls “myths” about the firm.
Watson and Mosley have also written to critical MPs, with letters counting how often they spoke out against the company. Labour MP Clive Lewis called the letters “very Big Brother.”
A Palantir spokesperson said trusts using its software recorded 117,000 additional operations. The company also cited a 14.3% drop in discharge delays for long stay patients and a 5.6% improvement in people learning within 28 days whether they have cancer.
