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Britain's state-run National Health Service (NHS) is granting staff from companies including Palantir (PLTR.O) 'unlimited access' to identifiable patient data while working on its flagship data platform, the Financial Times reported on Monday, citing an internal briefing note.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report. Palantir and NHS did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.
The change concerns the National Data Integration Tenant (NDIT), described as a "safe haven for data" before it is "pseudonymised" and shared with other systems, the report said.
NHS England has agreed to create an "admin" role granting non-staff "unlimited access" to the NDIT and identifiable patient data, the FT added.
The NDIT is housed under the Federated Data Platform, which links disparate NHS datasets into a single system. Palantir won a 330 million pound ($448.4 million) contract to develop the platform in 2023.
Florida-based data analytics firm Palantir has also secured contracts with Britain’s Ministry of Defence and Financial Conduct Authority, deals that have drawn scrutiny due to its work with U.S. government defense agencies.
"This is not only about Palantir, hence we have referred to non-NHSE staff, but there is currently considerable public interest and concern about how much access to patient data Palantir/Palantir staff have," the briefing note viewed by the FT said.
It also recommends capping external admin access to the NDIT and making such permissions time-limited and subject to regular review, the report added.
($1 = 0.7359 pounds)
