Sixteen NHS trusts reject Palantir's £330m patient data platform, FOI replies show
FOI responses reviewed by the Guardian show 16 NHS trusts and health boards in England do not use Palantir's £330m federated data platform, as the Burnham government weighs the break clause in the seven-year deal.
Freedom of information responses reviewed by the Guardian reveal that 16 NHS trusts and health boards in England do not use Palantir’s £330m federated data platform (FDP), introduced in March 2024 — as the Burnham government weighs the break clause in the seven-year deal.
University Hospitals of North Midlands said it would not use the platform because “it does not appear to provide functionality over and above what we have already”, while Dorset HealthCare said it “will not be adopting or going live with the FDP” and Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust said it had “no plans to use it”. Greater Manchester’s care board called the system “duplicative” and “retrograde”, and a Suffolk trust said its own systems “supercede” the FDP’s functionality.
The picture is not uniform: some health bodies told the FOI researchers the platform had made managing waiting lists easier and improved surgery scheduling. The responses were gathered by the health campaign Medact, which opposes Palantir’s role in the NHS, and published on the transparency site WhatDoTheyKnow.
National Data Guardian Dr Nicola Byrne wrote to Health Innovation Minister James Frith on 9 October urging that public and professional trust be given substantial weight in the decision; the letter was published on gov.uk on 12 October.
Palantir accused Medact of “slanted analysis” and “misleading the public”. Its senior vice-president Tom Watson said: “If there are companies that can do it, they would have taken part in free and open competition.” NHS England said 137 trusts had reported benefits from the platform’s tools.
More: NHS Palantir coverage.
Sources
- The Guardian, “Palantir patient data tech rejected by many NHS trusts in England” (text via Bytes Europe), 17 Oct 2026: https://www.byteseu.com/2459485/
- The National Data Guardian’s letter to Health Innovation Minister James Frith, 9 Oct 2026 (published on gov.uk 12 Oct), as summarised by Yeandel, 17 Oct 2026: https://www.yeandel.co.uk/22-q3-2026-updates/deciding-before-the-evidence.html
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