Health workers, patients and campaigners protested outside Palantir’s London offices last week where a secretive, closed-door meeting between senior NHS leadership and Palantir was taking place, warning that the health service is being sold off to war profiteers.
The demonstration, organised by Medact and Health Workers for a Free Palestine, challenged NHS officials holding ‘key strategic discussions’ with Palantir inside its own offices. We called out the nepotistic nature of the relationship between NHS senior leadership and Palantir.
One health worker who joined us at the protest said: “We’re angry at the extremely cosy relationship between Palantir, an evil, war-profiteering corporation, and NHS administration – there is a clear revolving door, and this secretive meeting is a betrayal of frontline staff and patients.”
Examples of former UK government officials now employed or consulted by Palantir include former Labour deputy leader Lord Tom Watson, ex-MoD strategy director Polly Scully and former MI6 head Sir John Sawers. These connections, and why they cause a conflict of interest, are laid out clearly in our briefing, released last week: Concerns Regarding Palantir Technologies and NHS Data Systems.
Questioning why key discussions on the future of NHS data were being hosted by Palantir, we accused NHS senior leadership of allowing corporate lobbying to infiltrate the health service and enabling the outsourcing of sensitive public health infrastructure to a software company known for surveillance.
Speakers at the protest warned that embedding Palantir’s software across the NHS risks turning sensitive health data systems into an asset for a company known for enabling data-driven abuses of state power. “As frontline staff, we will not stand by whilst NHS management hand huge chunks of our health system to Palantir, and we are left to deal with the devastating impact on patient trust,” one health worker said.
We also called on NHS staff to come forward as whistleblowers if they have concerns about the already disreputable procurement process or the use of Palantir’s technology in the health service. NHS data analysts and engineers can confidentially reach out to [email protected].
We within the ‘No Palantir in the NHS’ campaign are demanding that NHS England cancels its FDP contract with Palantir. There are clear concerns over data protection, governance, procurement transparency, state surveillance and the broader human rights implications of embedding Palantir technology.
“Trust between patients and doctors is absolutely essential to the delivery of effective healthcare. But by handing so much power over our data to a company as untrustworthy, and dedicated to the erosion of human rights as Palantir, the NHS is putting this at real risk. They need to stop listening to Palantir’s lobbyists and start listening to patients: our health depends on getting Palantir out of the NHS.” – Hope Worsdale, Just Treatment.
The contract is up for review in less than a year, and NHS England is under intense pressure to pull out of the controversial deal. Get involved in organising in your area!
