Health service staff have expressed alarm that engineers working for controversial tech company Palantir have been given NHS email accounts.
Employees using NHS.net email accounts have access to a directory with the contact details of up 1.5 million staff. Sources believe Palantir staff were granted the same access.
Palantir staff working on the introduction of its Federated Data Platform (FDP) for NHS England have also been given access to NHS SharePoint filesharing systems and internal Microsoft Teams groups.
Hospital trusts and integrated care boards across the country are being encouraged to adopt FDP, which Palantir won a £300m contract to provide in 2023. NHS England says FDP allows NHS organisations to connect patient records historically held across different systems, allowing staff to manage waiting lists, allocate appointments, speed up diagnoses and personalise treatment more effectively. It is part of the government’s plan to “reinvent the NHS” through “radical shifts”, including moving systems from “analogue to digital”.
The use of NHS email accounts and internal systems by private contractors is not unusual. However, Palantir’s association with AI-powered surveillance and war technology has made some staff, patients and human rights campaigners question the ethics and implications of allowing the spy-tech company to become embedded in the UK public sector.
Rory Gibson, a resident doctor, said: “I – as a doctor – absolutely don’t want my personal email and number to be accessible to someone who works for Palantir on the NHS, and might next month be working on systems for drone strikes. NHS staff have not consented to sharing their email addresses with Palantir staff.”
The Guardian has seen evidence that at least six Palantir engineers supporting NHS staff with the FDP rollout have been given NHS.net accounts.
A Palantir spokesperson said: “This is normal practice for government suppliers. Indeed the government’s own guidance states that using government systems is more secure than suppliers using their own systems.”
Palantir says its software has “helped deliver 110,000 additional operations, a 15.3% reduction in discharge delays and a 6.8% increase” in cancer diagnoses within 28 days of referral. The spokesperson added: “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.”
David Rowland, the director of the Centre for Health and the Public Interest, said: “The fact Palantir staff working on the contract have been granted NHS email addresses may not in itself amount to any rule breach and is likely to occur in other instances where private contractors run NHS services.
“But the strong reaction of NHS staff to the involvement of Palantir in the health service shows that there are deep ethical concerns that its values and way of making money run counter to the founding values of the NHS.
“The controversy around Palantir is but one example of private companies with problematic backgrounds delivering health and social care services in the UK – it’s time for a full-scale review of which companies are getting NHS money and how they were awarded contracts.”
Some NHS staff were angered to discover they had been in virtual Microsoft Teams meetings with Palantir staff, who had joined using NHS email accounts, without being told who they worked for.
It is understood the email accounts were granted under NHSmail access policy, which says that “independent sector organisations that provide health and social care services nationally” can use NHSmail.
If provided without restrictions, an NHS.net account allows access to staff details on the NHSmail portal – which can include role, location, workplace and mobile number. It can also be used to access “Blue Light” staff discounts offered by some restaurants and major retailers.
Palantir software is already being used by some UK police forces and the Ministry of Defence, and critics fear the “drag and drop” interoperability of its systems will enable state abuses of power, including the possibility of a British version of the US immigration enforcement agency ICE, which the Reform UK party has said it would create if elected to power .
Palantir’s founders include the US businessman and Trump backer Peter Thiel, who has said “the NHS makes people sick”, and Alex Karp, who boasted that the company’s spy technology helps clients “scare” and “kill” enemies. Its UK arm is headed by Louis Mosley, grandson of the British fascist leader Oswald Mosley.
An NHS spokesperson said: “All suppliers, including Palantir, and their staff operate only under NHS instruction, with all data access remaining under NHS control and governed by strict contractual confidentiality obligations.”
