Palantir NHS platform unused by 29 trusts listed as benefiting

Twenty-nine NHS trusts on a list of hospitals said to be benefiting from Palantir's £330m Federated Data Platform told researchers the system was not live, had not gone live, or was not in operational use.

The Guardian reported the finding on 2 November, drawing on more than 100 freedom of information requests filed by the medical charity Medact. NHS England lists nearly 140 trusts as reporting benefits from the platform, which it credits with 117,539 additional operations, a 14.3% cut in discharge delays for long-stay patients, and a 5.6% improvement in 28-day cancer diagnosis notification.

The 29 trusts make up about 21% of NHS England's benefits list. One senior health official called the gap between NHS England's claim and the trusts' answers "very misleading".

"I am concerned to hear that there are 29 trusts reported as receiving benefits but when asked are not actually using the tool," said Chi Onwurah, chair of the Commons science and technology committee. She has pushed the government to invoke the contract's 2027 break clause.

Marc Farr, chair of the NHS Chief Data and Analytics Officers Network, asked "what counts as success?" NHS England has said its list includes trusts using the tools for back-office data work rather than patient care, and counts those as live once the systems for submitting data are in place.