Doctors to sue the Government over plans that could hand NHS patients medical records to a secretive US tech giant
Doctors are preparing to sue the Government over plans that could hand the confidential medical records of millions of NHS patients to a secretive US tech giant, the Mail can reveal.
The £480million plan to create a privately run central database is expected to include all health information held by the NHS – including GP surgeries, hospitals and care homes.
The front-runner for the contract is Denver-based Palantir, which makes surveillance software used by the FBI and CIA.
The £480m plan to create a privately run central database is expected to include all health information held by the NHS – including GP surgeries, hospitals and care homes
Privacy activists claim their questions have been ignored by Whitehall officials for months. Now a coalition of medics and patients is seeking a judicial review to force the Government to reveal details of the plan.
Legal paperwork was sent to the Government last week, which set out plans for the court challenge, spearheaded by Foxglove, a tech justice non-profit organisation.
The group – which includes the Doctors’ Association, the National Pensioners Convention and campaign group Just Treatment – is demanding the Government reveal what data will be shared.
Tory MP David Davis said the project, known as the NHS Federated Data Platform, ‘throws up huge doubts’ over the security of sensitive patient data.
Palantir’s founder Peter Thiel, a Trump supporter in 2016, has described the British love of the NHS as ‘Stockholm syndrome’.
A Palantir spokesman said : ‘We don’t collect or monetise data, we simply provide the tools to help customers organise and understand their own information.’
An NHS spokesman said the successful supplier must ‘go through due diligence’.
