Union Safety - Official Website of NW BT Union Health and Safety Coordinators Committee: Government Lies About Not Selling NHS Patient's Data Exposed

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Government to establish a ‘realistic’ valuation for NHS data - previously valued at £9Billion

The Department of Health and Social Care has commissioned PA Consulting to provide a practical estimate of the economic value of NHS and broader health data for industry, researchers, and academics. Valued as one of the richest health datasets globally, this data will be managed by the new Health Data Research Service (HDRS).

Depsite previously claiming NHS patient data is not for sale (to multi-national companies, that is) Wes Streeting that

'data is the future of the NHS', then NHS England awarded a controversial £330million contract to US group Palantir's technology - sometimes described as 'spy tech' has been criticised by human rights groups as capable of being abused to spy on private citizens.

Now, PA Consulting has been awarded £199,000 for a two-month project concluding on 31 October to analyse and quantify the financial potential of granting controlled, secure access to de-identified NHS health data for research purposes. This evaluation will guide the development of value-capture and sharing models, including recommendations on how to realize this value and the associated risks.

Further, and as stated above, Palantir Technologies, a US software company co-founded by billionaire Peter Thiel, a Trump donor and beneficiary, known for its origins in military and intelligence applications; was handed in November 2023, a controversial £330 million, seven-year contract with NHS England to develop the Federated Data Platform (FDP). This platform is designed to consolidate fragmented health data across NHS trusts into a unified system to improve patient care and streamline data access.

The contract aims to integrate disparate NHS data sources to better share patient information and analyse health trends at scale, and to develope a platform allowing for NHS patient data to be accessed by other private companies and vendors.

However, Palantir’s involvement has sparked criticism over privacy concerns, given its background in surveillance technology, and opposition due to Peter Thiel’s political associations.

The British Medical Association called it 'deeply worrying' that the US giant, which has close ties to defence and intelligence agencies in America, the UK and elsewhere, would be handling British patients' sensitive details.

A paid advisor to Palantir is former Labour MP and peer Tom Watson.

Additionally, many NHS hospitals and experts have expressed dissatisfaction with Palantir’s software, reporting that it does not meet their existing capabilities, which has resulted in limited uptake across trusts.

Despite these issues, Palantir’s platform is backed by NHS England with further funding allocated to improve privacy features and enable other firms to participate in future platform development. The company came into favour partly due to its role during the COVID-19 pandemic in managing data for vaccine rollout and resource allocation. The contract has raised ongoing questions about data governance, vendor lock-in, transparency, and the appropriateness of outsourcing core NHS data infrastructure to a private and politically controversial firm.

In a further developement, The HDRS, backed by £500 million in government funding over five years plus £100 million from the Wellcome Trust, aims to be the world’s most advanced and secure AI-ready health data platform, linking genomic, diagnostic, and clinical data at scale. It will ensure data ownership remains with the NHS and patients while promoting economic growth and investment in UK life sciences.

Life sciences is a seperate industry aimed at using AI to replace doctors and specialists, enabling the development of patient held applications for mobile phones to enable self-diagnosis and suggest treatment paths. But, all the government refers to is the cancer diagnostics and scanning abilities being used by private companies who have been handed huge contracts to replace NHS in-house diagnostic services. Virtually the majority of these services are now run by the private sector.

The government is recruiting a chief executive, with a salary of up to £299,000 including bonuses, and a chair to lead HDRS as a new government company. The goal is to launch a minimum viable service by December 2026 and have full operation by 2030. A Department of Health spokesperson emphasised the assessment as a responsible step to optimise public spending and highlighted HDRS’s potential to deliver significant health benefits and attract investment.

Meanwhile, Good Law Project has discovered that NHS England continued negotiations with Palantir even after awarding the company a highly controversial contract in November 2023 to manage patient data. The NHS holds extremely valuable healthcare data for 65 million UK residents, which could improve and reduce healthcare costs if managed properly for public benefit.

Palantir was awarded a series of lucrative preliminary contracts without open competition to adapt and operate a platform for NHS use. This early foothold enabled it to secure the main contract in November 2023. However, it has now come to light that the contract was given before negotiations were fully complete. A letter dated 26 February 2024 from NHS lawyers revealed that when the contract was published in late December, 417 of the 586 pages were heavily redacted, including key sections on data protection, due to them still being "subject to commercial negotiation."

NHS England admitted that in mid-December 2023, some contractual provisions were still being agreed upon with suppliers, justifying the redactions. Good Law Project argues that it is unlawful for a public body to enter into negotiations after awarding a contract, which undermines fairness to other bidders and the NHS’s negotiating position.

This situation raises serious concerns about transparency, fairness, and governance in the awarding of a multimillion-pound contract managing sensitive NHS data.

The future sale of NHS patient's private medical data is clearly being set up for sale, as is patient data in the US, to private organisations, insruance companies, and medical research companies along with big pharma, despite Government denials!

Source: HSJ / DHSC / NHS England / Good Law Project