{"id":585973,"date":"2026-04-04T23:56:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T23:56:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/585973\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T23:56:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T23:56:29","slug":"staff-of-uks-nhs-refuse-to-work-on-palantir-system-tells-hospitals-find-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/585973\/","title":{"rendered":"Staff of UK’s NHS, refuse to work on Palantir system, tells hospitals: Find us …"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Staff UK\u2019s National Health Service (NHS) staff are refusing to work on Palantir Technologies\u2019 health data platform. A report claims that some members have even asked hospitals to assign them alternative roles over ethical concerns linked to the company. According to a report by The Financial Times, the resistance follows Palantir\u2019s \u00a3330 million contract in 2023 to build the Federated Data Platform (FDP). This platform brings together NHS operational data, including waiting lists, staffing, patient information and operating theatre schedules. The company\u2019s involvement has drawn scrutiny due to its work in the US defence sector and comments by co-founder and chief executive Alex Karp supporting Donald Trump\u2019s immigration policies, the report adds.<\/p>\n

What NHS officials said about staff refusing to use Palantir\u2019s system<\/p>\n

In a statement to FT, one senior NHS official who manages data analysts said, \u201cPeople are saying, \u2018I refuse to work on this software. You have to find something else for me to do\u2019. They\u2019re calling it a workplace adjustment. It would be like, you know, if you were disabled and needed a different desk, they\u2019re literally treating it like that.\u201d\u201cIt\u2019s a significant number of people but there is also a silent majority that feel uncomfortable but wouldn\u2019t want to put their head above a parapet,\u201d the official added.Another senior health official, who has worked in NHS analytics for nearly two decades, said they would not use the FDP because it is run by an \u201cethically bankrupt\u201d organisation.\u201cI will continue to refuse to engage with any work involving this company. I know that there are staff who are already working as slowly as they can when pressured to work with Palantir,\u201d the official added.Another junior NHS staff member told FT, \u201cLast year, I contacted my team lead to officially refuse to work with the FDP and I was told that I would be found projects outside of the FDP wherever possible.\u201dConcerns about Palantir\u2019s role have also been raised by MPs, NHS staff and medical trade unions, particularly around its suitability for handling data in national health systems. Earlier this week, the FT reported that UK ministers have sought advice on triggering a break clause in the company\u2019s contract amid pressure to remove it from NHS England’s data systems.One health data official said their team was \u201cnot interested in using [the FDP] as it doesn\u2019t do anything new for us\u201d and that \u201ctheir method is to just not use it\u201d.\u201cIt\u2019s a mix of not needing to because other methods are better, and ethics. It makes me feel sick every time I log into the thing and I know I\u2019m not alone in that. Colleagues are avoiding the news because it makes them feel terrible,\u201d the official noted.<\/p>\n

What Palantir and NHS said about the development<\/p>\n

In a statement to The Times UK this week, Palantir\u2019s UK chief Louis Mosley said, \u201cHaving a review clause in a contract is good and normal practice. However, what some ideologically motivated campaigners are suggesting should happen would harm patient care and prevent some of the biggest challenges facing the NHS from being tackled.\u201dA briefing prepared for health secretary Wes Streeting ahead of a meeting with Mosley in June 2025, obtained through a Freedom of Information request by digital rights group Foxglove, stated, \u201cThe public perception of the FDP during the procurement, and then in delivery, has been affected by the profile of Palantir. We do not know the extent to which this is impacting on delivery. It is, however, likely to make it harder to go further with the FDP, and to encourage the inclusion of GP data locally. It may be useful to consider ways in which we can mitigate this.\u201dDuring an appearance on the Guardian Politics Weekly podcast last week, Streeting was asked whether he understood concerns about the ethics of the Palantir contract. He replied, “Yes, for a few reasons. Firstly, when you look at some of the things that Palantir\u2019s leaders have said in the States, when you look at their political views and their outlook.\u201dWhen asked about co-founder Peter Thiel\u2019s support for Donald Trump, Streeting said, \u201cIf you were to put him and some of those Palantir bosses on the political spectrum in the UK, they would be well off to the right of even Kemi Badenoch\u2019s Conservative Party, which is saying something at the moment. And so there\u2019s a question people have about values.\u201dAn NHS spokesperson said, \u201cAll 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.\u201d4A Palantir spokesperson said, \u201cWe are happy to discuss any concerns from NHS staff, and there is a lot of false information circulating about the company and how our software works. It is also important to understand that the evidence of the past two years of delivery is that our software is helping improve patient care.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UK\u2019s National Health Service (NHS) staff are refusing to work on Palantir Technologies\u2019 health data platform. A report…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585974,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[64,63,286820,137,500,3285,286827,286825,286823,286821,77637,286822,286826,286824],"class_list":{"0":"post-585973","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-ethical-concerns-palantir","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-healthcare","13":"tag-nhs","14":"tag-nhs-alternative-roles","15":"tag-nhs-contract-palantir","16":"tag-nhs-federated-data-platform","17":"tag-nhs-staff-refusal-palantir","18":"tag-palantir-technologies","19":"tag-palantir-uk-controversy","20":"tag-staff-protest-nhs","21":"tag-uk-nhs-data-platform"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}