‘There’s real concern’ – Hackney health campaigners hold first rally outside Homerton Hospital
The rally was held outside Homerton University Hospital. Photograph: Hackney Council
Hackney Coalition against Palantir has held its first rally protesting Homerton Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust possibly entering into a deal with a controversial US data company.
The group, which launched earlier this month, demonstrated peacefully outside Homerton University Hospital on Wednesday morning (26 November).
Representatives attended from a number of organisations including Hackney Keep Our NHS Public (KONP), Hackney Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), Hackney Patients Not Passports (PNP) and the Socialist Health Association London.
Union branches including Doctors in Unite and Homerton Hospital Trust Unison were also represented, and nine Hackney councillors attended.
Speakers at the event – including the Good Law’s Duncan McCann, Hackney PSC’s George Binette and Marion Macalpine from Hackney KONP – expressed concerns over the ethics of Palantir’s involvement in NHS England’s provision of services and further privatisation of the NHS.
Palantir Technologies provides data and surveillance predominantly to military, security, intelligence and police agencies. This includes supplying technology to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and assisting the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency in meeting its deportation quotas.
The company was awarded a £330million, seven-year contract by NHS England in November 2023 to provide a data management system called the Federated Data Platform (FDP), “brings together health data in one secure place to help NHS staff make better decisions about patient care and service planning.”
However, the coalition has questioned the morality of engaging with a corporation working with ICE and the IDF, both during Wednesday’s rally and in a letter deposited at the office of Homerton’s Chair and CEO on 21 November.
They also expressed concerns that working with Palantir may cause Homerton patients to lose trust and shared scepticism over further NHS privatisation.
Macalpine told the Citizen: “We intend to continue letting people know what kind of company Palantir is, and how their surveillance and use of data allows migrants to be deported in the US and Palestinians to continue to be targeted by the Israeli Defence Force. We will be joining with many other campaigns across the country as everywhere there is real concern as well about our personal health data.”
Last month, a Health In Hackney scrutiny commission meeting discussed Homerton Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust using the FDP, the Citizen previously reported.
Deputy Chief Executive of Homerton Healthcare, Tom Nettle, said at the time that the Trust was “going through an active process of reviewing how we might make use of the FDP.”
He said: “While implementation is not currently mandated in relation to using the FDP, all trusts and ICBs are being asked to provide plans as to how they’ll maximise the benefits of the NHS FDP offer for patients within the next two years.“We’re still considering whether a solution would offer us a benefit at the trust and that consideration is ongoing.
“As part of this we are speaking and seeking detailed feedback not just from the central team and NHS England but also from a large number of trusts that are already using it.”
Homerton Hospital Trust already participates in an FDP system to provide performance data on London Ambulance Service A&E admissions.
Nettle also said Homerton would be “required to utilise FDP” should NHS England or NHS London “choose to use the FDP systems to monitor and manage performance.”
A spokesperson for NHS England told the Citizen: “NHS England conducted a fair and transparent procurement process for a supplier of the Federated Data Platform in line with public contract regulations.”
The Citizen has contacted Homerton Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and Palantir Technologies for comment.