Healthcare workers across London protest Palantir in the NHS
Healthcare workers were joined by patients, campaigners and councillors in a co-ordinated day of action opposing Palantir's continuing role in the NHS.
Hospital workers and campaigners including Amnesty International, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Medact and Keep Our NHS Public united for the global day of action against Palantir on Thursday 1 October.
Campaigners urged the government not to renew Palantir's NHS contract as it comes up to the break clause in February 2027.
With reports from Lewisham Hospital and Royal London Hospital.
Lewisham hospital using Palantir software
The groups Save Lewisham Hospital and Keep Our NHS Public (KONP) organised the protest outside Lewisham hospital along with Green councillors and Healthworkers4Palestine.
KONP said: "We are very concerned that Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust is one of the hospital trusts nationally who have signed up to use the Federated Data Platform (FDP) and is using additional Palantir software packages."
Campaigners point out that in the US, Palantir is working with the ICE in its brutal and extra-judicial mass deportations.
Palantir has been identified by the UN as part of the corporate machinery enabling genocide in Gaza.
Other concerns include the security of sensitive health data, the risks of vast shared NHS databases, the risk of connection to other government departments and the risks of foreign ownership of patient data.
Clinicians and NHS digital experts have also warned of technical concerns with the Palantir platform.
The FDP has already seen data breaches and triggered investigations of flawed data, while promised cost benefits have not materialised.
At the Lewisham full council meeting on 23 September, Samantha Gardiner, cabinet member for health, wellbeing and adult social care, who is also a nurse, confirmed the Greens' position.
"We do not believe that Palantir technology should have a role in our NHS, in our public services or in our handling of residents' sensitive health data," she said.
She said this was a human rights matter, due to Palantir's involvement in military and immigration enforcement, that it was an issue of privacy and protection of sensitive NHS data and finally an issue of democratic control of public systems.
Protests at Royal London Hospital
Campaigners from Barts Health NHS Trust joined workers and patients from across East London for the protest outside the Royal London Hospital.
Barts NHS Trust has used Palantir's theatre scheduling application since late 2023 but is facing mounting resistance. Opposition is intense and rising.
Over 500 staff and patients petitioned local health boards to refuse to adopt the FDP in 2025.
By May 2026, more than 2,000 East London residents had formally demanded an end to Palantir’s presence in the NHS.
Campaigners dismissed Barts' response as "minimal and tokenistic."
They continue to demand that Barts end its use of FDP products, communicate the public's concerns to NHS England and back the break clause.
They also demand an end to all NHS contracts with companies complicit in the Israeli occupation.
Jonathan Purcell, deputy leader of the Green Group in Tower Hamlets council, said: “Patients don’t want their data handled by a US spy-tech firm, especially not one actively assisting Israel’s genocide against Palestinians.
"It’s a disgrace this contract was ever signed in the first place, but it’s unconscionable that it be allowed to continue.”
The global protest against Palantir continues this week.
Protest at London Hospital. Image: Jonathan Purcell
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