Dr Marc Farr, chair of the Chief Data and Analytics Network and national chair of the Association of Professional Healthcare Analysts (AphA) (Credit: Marc Farr)

NHS England’s mandate that all providers adopt the federated data platform (FDP) has been criticised for being “at odds” with existing policy and pushing a product which doctors don’t believe is “up to the job” for patients. 

The NHSE medium term planning framework, published on 24 October 2025, stated that all trusts and integrated care boards (ICBs) must be onboarded to the NHS FDP and use its core products to support elective recovery, cancer, and urgent and emergency care.

However, Marc Farr, chair of the Chief Data and Analytical Officer’s Network, told Digital Health News that the guidance is “at odds with the existing policy that says you have to consider the FDP but if you already have data and tools in place then you can proceed and not use it”.

He previously wrote an open letter to Ming Tang, chief data and analytics officer at NHSE, raising concerns about whether the FDP is capable of supporting local systems.

NHS trusts with their own products have consistently pushed back on adopting the FDP and despite 150 trusts having onboarded, only 77 were live and actively reporting benefits in September 2025, according to NHSE figures.

One trust that has expressed preference for its own products is Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, which reportedly told NHSE earlier this year that adopting some of the FDP tools would lead it to “lose functionality rather than gain it”.

A spokesperson for Leeds Teaching Hospitals told Digital Health News that it has implemented the FDP Referral to treatment validation tool, but will “continue to utilise” its own products for the provision of outpatient care co-ordination and discharge planning.

Meanwhile, Greater Manchester ICB — which has its own mature interconnected data systems including the GM Care Record, Analytics and Data Science Platform and Secure Data Environment for Research — remains the only ICB to have not signed up to the NHS FDP.

A spokesperson for Greater Manchester told Digital Health News: “While the Board has not yet committed to adoption, we remain involved in discussions to shape guidance and explore how the FDP could complement our local data platforms.”

Speaking in October 2025, Tang appeared to take a dig at providers which continue to use their own products, calling leaders’ egos “the biggest challenge to the adoption of NHS technology”.

In response, Rosa Curling, co-executive director of Foxglove, an non-profit which previously launched a campaign against FDP supplier Palantir, said: “NHS bosses have chosen to blame slow uptake of FDP on ‘ego’ and ‘ideology’ but the truth seems more mundane: doctors just don’t seem convinced that Palantir’s kit is up to the job for their patients.

“We’ve seen major NHS trusts in Manchester and Leeds say FDP either wouldn’t improve the systems they already have, or in some cases would actually reduce quality.

“Unless NHSE can address those concerns in a public and transparent way to both doctors and patients, it’s hard to see why they should accept Palantir’s failing product – no matter how many arbitrary deadlines NHSE decides to announce.”

What do you think about NHSE’s target for FDP adoption? Comment below…