The Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead

CAMPAIGNERS are warning that NHS hospital trusts are under pressure to hand over hundreds of thousands of Camden and Islington patients’ data to an American AI giant.

The Defend Whittington Hospital Coalition (DWHC) held a meeting on Tuesday with a range of speakers sounding an alarm against Palantir.

The company – founded by Silicon Valley billionaire and prominent Donald Trump supporter Peter Thiel – has already secured a £330million contract to “federate” patient data services across the NHS on its NHS Federated Data Platform.

The company says waiting lists could be cut and hospital staff will more easily be able to check patient history under its unified system. The New Journal understands that while both the Royal Free and Whittington hospitals have agreed to install the software on orders from the Department of Health and Social Care, they are yet to install it. UCLH is yet to agree to use the new system. The deal between Palantir and the DHSC is the first time a US firm has made major inroads into the NHS.

Jeremy Corbyn, the independent MP for Islington North, said deals between the UK and the US had “resulted in medicines being imported to Britain, and prices have been jacked up”, adding: “More ominously, it has involved this huge data collection that Palantir is involved in. We are talking about 80 years of NHS records of every person who has lived and died since 1948 – it is of incredible value. Medical research companies dream of this. It should be in public hands.”

Mr Corbyn said he had, with the DWHC, spoken to the Whittington’s management about Palantir and told the meeting it was “not keen” but also felt “not in a position to stop it coming in”. AI expert and researcher Anne Alexander said: “This is not simply a software company. It is a military and security company. One of the aspects of it embedding itself in public services is a vector of introducing some of the values of practices of a company born in the military sector.”

She spoke about how the service being offered was only to fix the “chaos” that had been caused by fracturing the NHS in decades of “marketisation”, adding: “The other aspect is that it latches onto the hype around AI, that there is no alternative to using these systems. There are many people who argue that much of what is called AI is nothing more than a con trick – a marketing ploy. If NHS workers are being asked to use these products, people should ask what is being done and could it be done in another way?”

Amnesty International researcher Matt Mahmoudi spoke about how a student activist in New York was arrested by “ICE” immigration officers potentially after using “targeting” technology developed by Palantir. This had led to concerns that patient record information will be used in the crackdown against immigrants.

Duncan McCann, from the Good Law Project which is campaigning against Palantir, said: “It’s our most private data. We need trust to be established. We should be thinking twice about giving Palantir a deep footprint in the NHS. There is a real concern all around. The BMA [British Medical Association] has come out with a motion at their last conference.”

He said that Good Law Project’s figures showed that 60 NHS trusts were yet to make a decision about the software, while 60 have agreed but yet to start using it. “Many have said yes to get the government off their backs but are not keen to use it,” he said. “So this is by no means a foregone conclusion.”

George Binette, former chairman of Camden Trades Council, said the tech could be used as a “springboard to developing a national network” of surveillance. Palantir says it provides artificial intelligence-enabled military targeting systems and software to analyse data scattered across different systems, such as in the health service.

Last summer Louis Mosley, Palantir’s executive vice-president, said the BMA’s criticisms were putting “ideology above patient interest”.

A spokesperson for the Royal Free London said: “The NHS Federated Data Platform has not yet been introduced at the Royal Free London. We have some of the most robust protocols in the NHS for the protection of patient data and the use of any digital platform would be subject to it meeting these data protection standards.”

It is believed that the Whittington are not expecting to use the platform until 2028/29.

Palantir has previously said: “Where the software is in place it’s delivering benefits to patients and staff — increasing the use of operating theatres, driving down waiting lists and improving the way care is coordinated across the NHS.”