NHS England said it had'strict policies in place for managing access to patient data'. NHS England said it had'strict policies in place for managing access to patient data'. Palantir's access to identifiable NHS England patient data is'dangerous', MPs say Health service has given US tech firm'unlimited access' to certain data to build integrated platform, according to reports Mon 11 May 2026 08.01 EDTLast modified on Mon 11 May 2026 10.06 EDT MPs have warned that an NHS decision to grant Palantir access to identifiable patient information in its plan to use AI to improve the health service is "dangerous" and will fuel public fears that data privacy is not being prioritised. NHS England has allowed staff from the US tech firm and other contractors to access patient data before it has been pseudonymised, despite internal fears of a "risk of loss of public confidence", the Financial Times reported. The health service made the move to allow Palantir to access the data in recent weeks according to the reports, which revealed an internal NHS briefing that said it would allow "unlimited access to non-NHSE staff" to part of the NHS's federated data platform (FDP), which holds identifiable patient information.

NHS England is pulling its open-source software from the internet because of fears around computer-hacking AI models like Mythos. A decision by NHS England to withdraw open-source code created with UK taxpayer funds because of the risk posed by computer-hacking AI models is attracting growing backlash. Last month, Mythos, an AI created by technology firm Anthropic, was widely reported to be capable of discovering flaws in virtually any software, potentially allowing hackers to break into systems running it. NHS England has now told staff that existing and future software must be pulled from public view and kept behind closed doors by 11 May because of this risk. The decision goes against the NHS service standard, which requires that staff make any software they produce open-source so that tools can be built upon, improved and used without the need for duplicated effort.

NHS England is hurriedly withdrawing all the software it has written from public view because of the perceived risk of hacking from cutting-edge artificial intelligence. Security experts say the move is unnecessary and counterproductive. Software produced by the National Health Service has previously been made open-source and listed on GitHub because it is created with public money. This allows other organisations to build upon it and make better services more cheaply without duplicating effort. But NHS England has issued new guidance to staff, which has been shared with, that demands existing and future software be pulled from public view and kept behind closed doors.

Last December, I had an abortion. Most unwanted pregnancies set a panic-timer ticking, but I was almost counting down the seconds until I had to catch a flight from London, where I live, to Texas, where I grew up, and where the provision of abortion care was recently made a felony. You bleed for a while after most abortions, and I was still bleeding when I boarded the plane home for Christmas. Going to Texas so soon after the procedure made me consider where the record of my abortion – my health data – would end up. When I phoned an abortion clinic in late November to book an appointment, one of the first questions staff asked was: "May we share a record of your treatment with your GP?" It's not just that a complete health record helps my GP treat me. My Texan parents, both scientists, taught me that sharing information with organisations like the NHS can help it plan services and research ways to improve care. I've joined clinical studies in the past. But I also help run a legal campaign group, Foxglove, that takes action against the government and tech companies when they infringe people's rights. In a series of cases about NHS data since the start of the pandemic, we have defended people's right to a say about who sees their medical information. This work has exposed me to worrying details about how our medical data can be used, including the Home Office practice of tracking migrants using their health records. For decades the government has required GPs to store patients' records in a standardised way: as well as longhand notes, every interaction with a GP is saved on a computer database in a simple, consistent code.

The NHS is to use artificial intelligence to detect, screen and treat people at risk of hepatitis C under plans to eradicate the disease by 2030. Hepatitis C often does not have any noticeable symptoms until the liver has been severely damaged, which means thousands of people are living with the infection – known as the silent killer – without realising it. Left untreated, it can cause life-threatening damage to the liver over years. But with modern treatments now available, it is possible to cure the infection. Now health chiefs are launching a hi-tech screening programme in England in a fresh drive to identify thousands of people unaware they have the virus.

The NHS plans to use drones to fly chemotherapy drugs to cancer patients in England to avoid the need for long journeys to collect them. The devices will transport doses from Portsmouth to the Isle of Wight in a trial that, if successful, will lead to drones being used for similar drops elsewhere. They will take 30 minutes to travel across the Solent, which will save patients on the island a three to four-hour round trip by ferry or hovercraft. On Tuesday, Amanda Pritchard, NHS England's chief executive, unveiled the move to help mark the 74th anniversary of the health service's creation by the postwar Labour government. "Delivering chemo by drone is another extraordinary development for cancer patients and shows how the NHS will stop at nothing to ensure people get the treatment they need as promptly as possible, while also cutting costs and carbon emissions," she said.

US surveillance-tech supplier Palantir has hired a one-time director of AI for NHSX – the former UK health service digital agency. Indra Joshi quit her role at the end of March as NHSX and NHS Digital were merged into NHS England, a non-departmental government body. Her arrival at Palantir will raise concerns among NHS watchers and privacy campaigners. Palantir largely carries out information analysis and processing work for the defense and intelligence communities, often creating bespoke solutions such as digital-profiling tools for organisations like the CIA and ICE. The firm was founded by prominent Donald Trump financier and PayPal investor Peter Thiel.

A computer software is being rolled out in the NHS from today that can predict A&E admissions weeks in advance based on things like Covid rates and 111 calls. The AI technology will be used in over 100 hospitals with major A&E departments in England, nearly half of all NHS trusts. It was found to be able to make forecasts with'impressive' accuracy in a trial at nine trusts by looking at factors including local Covid and flu infection rates, traffic and 111 call data to model how many people will show up at A&E each day. The software also takes into consideration public holidays such as New Year's Eve, when emergency departments are more likely to fill up. There are plans to incorporate weather data in the future, with the cold associated with more falls and traffic accidents and hot temperatures linked to a rise in heart problems.

The Government has said that artificial intelligence (AI) in GP practices will help manage patients in the elective care backlog. It today announced that new technology and innovation will allow the NHS to treat 30% more elective care patients by 2023/24. It added that NHS'come forward with a delivery plan for tackling the backlog'. In March, NHS England suggested that GPs could be asked to review hospital waiting lists for elective care to help prioritise and manage patients from the following month. Details were limited, but NHS England later told GPs that they must'jointly manage' patients stuck in the backlog of care caused by the Covid pandemic with hospitals. Meanwhile, Pulse revealed in June that NHSX and NHS England were considering the viability of a wider roll out of an artificial intelligence triage model based on that used by Babylon.

"AI has the potential to completely revolutionise every part of how we approach healthcare, from how we diagnose diseases and the speed at which our doctors and nurses deliver treatments to how we support people's mental health. "The 38 projects we are backing reflect the UK's trailblazing approach to innovation in the healthcare sector, and could help us take a leap forward in the quality of care and the speed of disease diagnoses and treatment in the NHS. "Confronted with this global pandemic, our tech sector has risen to the challenge and upended how we do things through innovations to support people to test from home, complete remote consultations and diagnose issues safely." "Precision cancer diagnosis, accurate surgery, and new ways of offering mental health support are just a few of the promising real world patient benefits. Because as the NHS comes through the pandemic, rather than a return to old ways, we're supercharging a more innovative future. "So today our message to developers worldwide is clear - the NHS is ready to help you test your innovations and ensure our patients are among the first in the world to benefit from new AI technologies." The AI in Health and Care Award aims to accelerate the testing and evaluation of AI in the NHS so patients can benefit from faster and more personalised diagnosis and greater efficiency in screening services. For example, use of Paige Prostate will be able to give more information about prostate cancer, including detecting a tumour, its size and how severe it is, enabling clinicians to make treatment more specific and more targeted. As well as this, Mia by Kheiron Medical, a winner from the first round of the AI Awards, aims to replace the need for two radiologists to review breast cancer scans by instead using one radiologist and the AI, making the process faster and more efficient. "These trials are making the AI revolution a reality for patients.