UK’s National Health Service (NHS) staff are refusing to work on Palantir Technologies’ 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’s £330 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’s 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’s immigration policies, the report adds.
What NHS officials said about staff refusing to use Palantir’s system
In a statement to FT, one senior NHS official who manages data analysts said, “People are saying, ‘I refuse to work on this software. You have to find something else for me to do’. They’re calling it a workplace adjustment. It would be like, you know, if you were disabled and needed a different desk, they’re literally treating it like that.”“It’s a significant number of people but there is also a silent majority that feel uncomfortable but wouldn’t want to put their head above a parapet,” 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 “ethically bankrupt” organisation.“I 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,” the official added.Another junior NHS staff member told FT, “Last 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.”Concerns about Palantir’s 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’s contract amid pressure to remove it from NHS England’s data systems.One health data official said their team was “not interested in using [the FDP] as it doesn’t do anything new for us” and that “their method is to just not use it”.“It’s 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’m not alone in that. Colleagues are avoiding the news because it makes them feel terrible,” the official noted.
What Palantir and NHS said about the development
In a statement to The Times UK this week, Palantir’s UK chief Louis Mosley said, “Having 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.”A 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, “The 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.”During 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’s leaders have said in the States, when you look at their political views and their outlook.”When asked about co-founder Peter Thiel’s support for Donald Trump, Streeting said, “If 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’s Conservative Party, which is saying something at the moment. And so there’s a question people have about values.”An NHS spokesperson said, “All 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.”4A Palantir spokesperson said, “We 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.”
