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The NHS information chief has vowed to disregard controversy about Palantir whereas setting out plans to embed the US firm’s know-how deeper into hospitals over the approaching 12 months.
Ming Tang, chief information officer at NHS England, has instructed colleagues that the Federated Information Platform, which collates affected person data in a single place, is delivering “excellent outcomes” by dashing up surgical procedure and getting sufferers dwelling faster.
She pledged to realize “most product penetration” — using all accessible instruments on the FDP — in an preliminary group of hospitals over the subsequent 12 months.
Tang, thought of a number one inside advocate of the scheme, mentioned in an inside memo seen by the FT that her staff would “preserve our focus” despite controversy over Palantir’s position in US defence and immigration enforcement, and co-founder Alex Karp’s backing for Donald Trump.
“Whereas media and marketing campaign teams proceed to lift questions on our know-how provider, the programme is concentrated on the proof: the FDP is delivering,” she wrote.
Some NHS employees are refusing to work on the FDP as a result of issues about Palantir, whereas ministers are exploring use of a break clause subsequent 12 months within the firm’s £330mn contract, which was awarded in 2023.
Wes Streeting, the well being secretary, mentioned final month that he understood issues about Palantir, acknowledging “there’s a query individuals have about values”.
Within the memo despatched to senior executives final week, Tang insisted the programme “is driving sooner analysis, sooner referrals, sooner therapies”, saying that greater than 100,000 further sufferers had been given operations by means of extra environment friendly use of theatres.
“By staying targeted on the supply of those advantages, alongside information safety, we’ll proceed to show the worth of this programme by means of excellent outcomes,” she instructed colleagues.
Though Tang is because of stand down this month, she set out plans to maneuver the programme “from breadth to depth” over the subsequent 12 months, shifting focus from signing up hospitals to encouraging them to do extra on the platform, together with sharing ready lists throughout NHS trusts.
Shared ready lists had been an initiative promised in Labour’s manifesto to assist meet Sir Keir Starmer’s pledge to make sure 92 per cent of routine remedy occurs inside 18 weeks by the top of the parliament, a goal the NHS is struggling to realize.
Responding to critics of the FDP who say it has solely restricted advantages to date, Tang likened the primary part of the programme to “laying the foundations of a constructing: it has concerned an immense quantity of labor that has typically not been seen from the skin”.
She mentioned this work “offers the FDP its transformative potential”, arguing that connecting up NHS data higher would “allow the NHS to shift from a reactive service to a proactive, data-driven organisation”.
Tang attracted controversy in 2024 when she agreed to be the “visitor of honour” at a dinner hosted by International Counsel, the now-defunct lobbying agency based by Lord Peter Mandelson, which counted Palantir as a shopper.
Some within the NHS interpreted her memo, described by Tang as an end-of-year replace with ambitions for 2026-27, as an effort to make sure her successor continues to press forward with the FDP.
Individually, NHS England is vetting different know-how corporations to launch merchandise on what has been described as an “app retailer” for the FDP, in an effort to encourage hospitals to make use of the software program extra.
It has given well being tech corporations till Might 4 to use for accreditation to launch merchandise on the so-called Options Alternate platform.
“It’s like Google Play or the App Retailer — it helps you to share content material, so in case you’ve constructed a system to assist cut back ready lists in south-east London and Nottingham desires to purchase it, they’ll go on Options Alternate,” mentioned one individual acquainted with the plans.
The individual predicted this might present the advantages of the FDP, including: “Relatively simply having six centrally supported merchandise, you should have dozens or a whole lot coming on-line, trusts will be capable of take them up, corporations will be capable of earn a living and it’ll actually take off as soon as that opens up.”
Palantir and NHS England each declined to remark.
