Forum Topic

I find this rather frightening!

How Palantir is strengthening its hold on NHS patient datahttps://www.bmj.com/content/381/bmj.p1501.fullAs I do not subscribe to the British Medical Journal (BMJ), I cannot read the full article, but there is enough information to frighten me.I hope it is not awarded a bigger contract in the future!

Ivonne Holliday ● 910d5 Comments

Peter Thiel is the American billionaire who co-owned Paypal with Elon Musk with whom he now seems to have a love:hate relationship.I agree about the failed attempts to deal with NHS data and your comments.  We need to be sure that any deals are in our interests and not just those of overseas big business as part of another privatising exercise.

Philippa Bond ● 909d

Ivonne. I think one always has to have concerns about where one's data is, who is using it and for what purpose. US companies - and its government - have ploughed money into data analytics and I suspect they may also have recruited UK expertise to assist. Provided there are the right checks and balances in place looking after our data rights I don't in theory have an issue with this - potentially there are benefits in this. 
What does concern me is this government's possibly legislation to weaken citizens data rights. The GDPR isn't perfect but it does give individuals a number of rights concerning their data.
There's also the issue of is this politically motivated as part of a wider strategy by those on the right who dislike and would like to dismantle the NHS.
I don't think the BMJ is scaremongering just making sure a watchful eye is kept to see that data is used for the benefit of all not just for big business and shareholders. I'm thinking of arguments about whether data is the new oil or gold - the best comment I heard at a roundtable was that it's the new soil for growing knowledge. 

Michael Ixer ● 909d

Andy,I invite you to read this information:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palantir_TechnologiesScroll down to the entry about the British National Health Service under the heading "Customers".  Please note that "The firm [Palantir] has contracts relating to patient data from the British National Health Service. It was awarded an emergency, no-competition contract to mine COVID-19 patient data in 2019."Please note Liam Fox's "encouragement" for Palantir.Also, "The procurement of a £480m Federated Data Platform by NHS England, launched in January 2023 has been described as a 'must win' for Palantir. ..... In April 2023 it was revealed that a consortium of UK companies had been unsuccessful in its bid for the contract.""In January 2023 Palantir's founder, Peter Thiel, called Britain's affection for the NHS "Stockholm Syndrome" during a speech to the Oxford Union, going on to say that the NHS "makes people sick".Hmmmmmmmmmm

Ivonne Holliday ● 909d

Hello Andy,I am truly sorry to hear about your grandson.  The article I posted was published by the British Medical Journal (BMJ), not a tabloid newspaper.  Therefore, I do not think it is a scaremongering story.Yes, previous attemps to centralize patient records failed.  However, I find it very difficult to believe that there is no real expertise in the UK to undertake such a task.  The problem (or problems) with previous attemps to do this is that companies without the expertise required were granted contracts. Similar to the recent scandal on PPE contracts.US companies have for a long time been desperate to get hold of data on NHS patients just in the same way as Rupert Murdoch is desperate for the BBC to be closed down.I wholeheartedly agree that centralized patients records are a must.  I do not agree that only US or other foreign companies can do this.

Ivonne Holliday ● 909d

Not sure its frightening seems just the usual scare stories about nasty Americans stealing data. The combining of patient records is long overdue. I assumed that the NHS already had this when my grandson was lost but the time it took different hospitals to make contact and exchange info ___within the same trust______ proved to be the defining factor in his case. So personally don't care who does it so long as it gets done quickly and stops others having the same poor outcome.

Andy Pike ● 909d