Recent findings from the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) and an evaluation commissioned from Imperial College London have cast doubt on claims regarding the effectiveness of Palantir's technology within the NHS Federated Data Platform (FDP). The OSR has mandated that NHS England clearly state on its main webpage that key data does not definitively prove the software's effectiveness. This follows persistent concerns and a Freedom of Information request from Foxglove, which revealed that nearly a third of NHS trusts using Palantir's platform were performing fewer procedures than before its implementation.
NHS England initially claimed that the FDP, which uses Palantir's technology under a $330 million contract, had led to 111,589 additional patients undergoing procedures and a 15 percent reduction in discharge delays. These claims were widely disseminated, leading to public communication by Donald Campbell, advocacy director at Foxglove, who called for the government and Palantir to retract these "dodgy marketing claims." The OSR's intervention requires NHS England to add stronger caveats to published data and ensure that public communications distinguish between correlation and causation.
Investigations by the Financial Times revealed significant errors in the underlying data supporting Palantir's purported impact on discharge delays. For instance, some data showed a drop in discharge delays from hundreds of thousands to zero, which is highly improbable. Following these revelations, four NHS trusts admitted that their data contained numerous errors. Charles Tallack, former Head of Operational Research and Evaluation at NHS England, described the evidence supporting Palantir's impact as "increasingly flimsy." The OSR recommends that NHS England make caveats more prominent, detail methodology changes, and publish disaggregated trust-level data.
NHS England has accepted the OSR's recommendations, stating that they will be implemented in full to provide greater clarity on the patient benefits achieved through the technology. The regulator also advised that any figures cited by ministers or in official briefings about the FDP and its effectiveness be communicated accurately. The future of the £330 million contract with Palantir, which includes products like OPTICA designed to streamline patient discharge, remains under scrutiny, particularly after MPs from the health and social care select committee urged ministers to end the contract, citing doubts about the data platform's performance and risks to sensitive patient data.
