NHS England deletes ‘misleading’ claim 137 trusts benefiting from Palantir AI tools

NHS England has removed from its website a list of 137 hospital trusts described as "live" with and "realising benefits" from Palantir's AI-powered federated data platform. The Guardian had found that 29 of those trusts said the system was either not live or they were not using any of its applications.

The removal comes while ministers weigh whether to extend Palantir's £330m contract to 2029. The Office for Statistics Regulation is examining NHS claims about how widely the system is used, and critics say the claims make it look more embedded than it is.

A replacement page is less detailed and says early users were "already seeing real results". NHS England did not respond to requests for comment, so it has not explained why the list was taken down.

The federated data platform was set up to improve patient outcomes, boost operating theatre efficiency and speed up bed discharges. NHS England had published a list of every body it described as live and realising benefits, but after the Guardian's findings the original list appears to have been taken down.

Labour MP Ben Coleman, a member of the Commons health and social care select committee, called it "troubling" that the list was apparently pulled when 29 trusts said they were not using all or most of the system. He said the overclaim could put more hospitals off using the platform and wants an open platform for health data built with British tech companies instead.

Medact's freedom of information requests prompted the removal, according to the article. Medact spokesperson Rhiannon Mihranian Osborne, an NHS doctor, said the pages were taken down only after multiple investigations exposed their misleading nature and asked why NHS England spent years using shaky evidence to promote the benefits.

Palantir has hired Labour peer Tom Watson as a full-time lobbyist. Campaign groups wrote to the prime minister, Andy Burnham, and health secretary Yvette Cooper, saying the deal could be ended in 2027 using the contract's "termination assistance period" for a transition away from Palantir.