Demonstrators gathered outdoors the NHS Confed Expo and disrupted classes to protest in opposition to the convention’s sponsorship by US information analytics big Palantir.
The US agency provoked widespread controversy when it was awarded a £330 million contract in November 2023 to function the Federated Information Platform (FDP) for NHS England, with issues raised in regards to the procurement course of and the corporate’s ethics.
Palantir was scheduled to run two classes on the NHS Confed Expo on 12-13 June 2024 at Manchester Central.
A session run by Palantir on ‘Bettering well being outcomes by way of digital expertise’ on 13 June, was stopped after a number of protesters interrupted an tackle by Tom McArdle, UK well being lead at Palantir, to boost their objections.
Safety guards eliminated six protesters from the auditorium and tried to take away a lady carrying a hijab, who refused to depart, insisting that she was not a part of the protest and was being focused for her look.
A spokesperson for the NHS Confederation, which organised the convention, mentioned: “We are able to affirm {that a} session at convention was disrupted this morning.
“We perceive that a person was believed to be a part of the group and was requested to depart.
“We recognise she is upset and are wanting into the matter.”
The day prior to this, round 20 healthcare employees protested outdoors the convention to specific their objection to Palantir’s strategic partnership with the Israeli Defence Ministry to produce expertise to assist the nation’s conflict in opposition to Palestine, reported in Bloomberg UK in January 2024.
The campaigners, from the group Well being Employees for a Free Palestine, are calling for NHSE to cancel the FDP contract with Palantir, put an finish to privatisation and produce all public service information administration in-house.
A paediatrician concerned within the protest, who wished to stay nameless, instructed Digital Well being Information: “This 12 months, the convention of NHS administration, trusts and suppliers is sponsored by the navy AI firm Palantir.
“We’re protesting as a result of Palantir is presently offering its superior expertise to assist the Israeli occupation forces to commit genocide in Palestine.
“Regardless of warnings from information privateness consultants NHS England has handed them our well being information and public cash, disregarding the corporate’s questionable monitor report in human rights violations and scandals”.
Responding to the protest, a spokesperson for NHSE instructed Digital Well being Information: “As we’ve mentioned beforehand, NHS England ran an impartial procurement train, executed by the NHS, for the NHS, to obtain an NHS FDP.
“The selection of most well-liked provider was not made by a single individual, it was the results of evaluation by many alternative people”.
They added: “The NHS FDP shouldn’t be a knowledge assortment; it’s software program that may assist to attach disparate units of information and permit them for use extra successfully for care”.
Transparency and authorized advocates the Good Regulation Mission, openDemocracy and Foxglove have repeatedly cited Palantir’s controversial popularity, on account of its affiliation with US immigration companies, spy businesses and navy.
In February 2024, the Good Regulation Mission introduced that it had taken authorized motion over NHSE’s closely redacted contract with Palantir.
A spokesperson for Palantir mentioned: “We’re pleased with our work with the NHS. Our software program has a confirmed monitor report supporting the NHS’s world main vaccine rollout and serving to to hurry up distribution of ventilators throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Palantir’s devoted NHS staff is now working at tempo to assist cut back ready instances, minimize the period of time nurses and docs have to spend on administrative duties, and pace up analysis instances for critical sicknesses resembling most cancers – all whereas rigorously defending information privateness”.
Kettering Basic Hospital and Northampton Basic Hospital introduced in Might 2024 that they have been the primary of 44 pilot websites to transition to an area occasion of the FDP.
This story was amended at 16.01 on 13 June 2024 so as to add a remark from Palantir.