NHS England gives Palantir contractors broader access to patient data

A leaked internal briefing note describes a new admin role on the £330m Federated Data Platform that lets external staff bypass case-by-case data approvals. Patient groups and Labour MPs have called the change dangerous.

NHS England has decided to allow external personnel from contractors, including Palantir, to access identifiable patient data through a new administrative role on its main data platform, the Guardian reported on Sunday, citing an internal briefing note.

The change applies to the National Data Integration Tenant, a controlled environment that NHS England describes as a “haven” for identifiable patient data before that data is pseudonymised and passed into other systems connected to the Federated Data Platform (FDP).

Under existing rules, anyone working on the platform has to apply for approval to access specific datasets, a process known as a Controlled Data Access (CDA) request.

The briefing note seen by the Guardian says NHS England is creating ...