Palantir AI tech unused or little used by 29 NHS trusts said to be benefiting from it

Exclusive: Gap between NHS claim and trusts’ comments described as ‘very misleading’ by senior health official

More than two dozen hospital trusts the NHS claims have benefited from Palantir’s medical data platform are not using all or most of the AI-powered technology, the Guardian can reveal.

The 29 hospital trusts that NHS England publicly lists as “realising benefits” from the controversial £330m federated data platform (FDP) have said the system is not live or they are not using any of its applications. The apparent gap between the NHS claim and the trusts’ understanding was described as “very misleading” by one senior health official.

It comes as the health secretary, Yvette Cooper, faces calls from MPs and campaigners to axe the US tech firm’s contract to deliver the flagship government AI system, which aims to connect scattered medical files, speed up hospital discharges and improve surgery scheduling among other potentially life-saving improvements.

Palantir’s UK and Europe chief executive, Louis Mosley, said ending its contract would be “putting politics above patients” and accused critics of “Palantir Derangement Syndrome”. The company has contracts to supply AI to the Israeli military and Donald Trump’s homeland security crackdown, while its billionaire founder, Peter Thiel, has questioned democracy, said tech companies can “unilaterally change the world” and called technology an “incredible alternative to politics”.

NHS England has previously faced scrutiny over how it has used data to defend the Palantir contract, which began in 2024. It claims 117,539 more operations were carried out by trusts using the FDP in a year, but this summer it conceded it could not prove cause and effect, and the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) watchdog ran an investigation. Asked about the claim of NHS Trusts “realising benefits”, the OSR said it will now be “taking this forward under our casework function”.

The contrast between the number of hospitals the NHS claims realise benefits from Palantir’s technology and the statements of the hospitals themselves emerged from more than 100 freedom of information requests. NHS England states on its website that 137 trusts are “live” with the FDP, but of those described as “realising benefits”, 29 responded that they were either not using the system or its apps.

Epsom and St Helier said it was “not using FDP at the moment”, Kent and Medway said the trust “has been focused on other priorities … the FDP is not currently live”, Mersey Care said they had “not yet gone live with the FDP”, Nottingham University Hospitals said “no implementation timeline has been agreed”, and University Hospitals of North Midlands said: “FDP is not live. We do not intend to roll it out in the future.”

Chi Onwurah, chair of the Commons science and technology committee, said: “If many NHS trusts don’t see the value of the FDP, serious questions need to be asked about whether the hype surrounding Palantir’s products matches reality.”

She called on the government to activate the 2027 break clause in Palantir’s contract and launch an open competition for a UK-owned and based supplier to handle patient records. The Commons health select committee is also calling for ministers to pull Palantir’s deal.

The FOIs were obtained by Medact, a medical charity campaigning for Palantir to be ejected from the NHS, and shared with the Guardian. Medact spokesperson Dr Rhiannon Mihranian Osborne said: “Our NHS institutions are meant to work in the interests of public trust and evidence-based healthcare, not use creative accounting to justify a deeply controversial contract. There is no good reason for the government to continue this failing project. We now have to ask, if ministers are using these flawed claims to make their decision, are they being misled?”

Asked to respond, NHS England insisted nearly 140 trusts “have now reported benefits from the wide range of tools available on the platform, helping staff join up and improve care for patients, and work more efficiently.”

It has previously said that its list of hospital trusts reporting benefits includes those using the tools for back office data analysis and submission rather than to support patient care. It is understood trusts that say they do not use the FDP may use a small part of its functionality to help calculate treatment costs. For example, Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust said it is “not currently operationally using the FDP” but NHS England records it as “live” because infrastructure is in place “to support data submission, rather than active operational use of FDP apps.”

Palantir has been hitting back against criticism of its deal and last month hired Labour’s former deputy leader and member of the House of Lords Tom Watson as a full-time senior lobbyist. Watson this week has been posting videos on X aiming to debunk “myths” about Palantir, including concerns that public services will become “locked in” to its systems. He rebutted criticism from the Green party leader Zack Polanski, who said it was “beyond ridiculous” that Lord Watson was a life peer.

Watson and Mosley have also been writing directly to critical MPs in letters that have counted the times they have spoken out against the company, which one recipient, Labour’s Clive Lewis, described as “very Big Brother”.

Marc Farr, chair of the NHS Chief Data and Analytics Officers Network, said: “I am concerned to hear that there are 29 trusts reported as receiving benefits but when asked are not actually using the tool. It is great that a number of trusts that have adopted the FDP are benefiting from this nationally funded programme, but it is crucial for public support … that benefits are reported accurately, transparently and in a way that can be properly verified.”

A Palantir spokesperson said: “Palantir software is helping to deliver better care, with trusts using it recording 117,000 additional operations, a 14.3% reduction in discharge delays for long stay patients and a 5.6% improvement in the number of people finding out whether or not they have cancer within 28 days.”