CONTROVERSIAL US tech firm Palantir should not be allowed to develop a new NHS system amid fears “creeps” will be allowed access to a patient’s entire medical records, unions warned ahead of a parliamentary debate today.

The NHS Modernisation Bill is set to establish the Single Patient Record (SPR) system for fragmented health information to be joined up across the country. 

It’s billed as allowing patients to view their medical notes and prescriptions through the NHS app and providing clinicians with a holistic view of a patient’s health.

Unison said that ministers should rule out Palantir from supplying the delivery of the SPR, which is expected to build on the NHS’s federated data platform (FDP). 

Palantir was awarded the contract for its Foundry software to build the FDP, and reports emerged last month that the NHS is granting staff from companies including Palantir “unlimited access” to identifiable patient data while working on its FDP.

Ahead of the Bill’s second reading in the Commons today, Unison head of health Helga Pile said: “Efforts to streamline patient data to provide better care are long overdue and the SPR is a welcome step in that direction. But there are serious concerns over who has access to that data, and the history of previous failings with major IT projects.

“Allowing a morally dubious firm like Palantir to work with the NHS is damaging public confidence. Ministers should rule the controversial tech firm out of the running to develop the SPR.”

The British Medical Association (BMA), which represents GPs, echoed Unison’s concerns, raising fears that the new law will open the possibility that patient data is used inappropriately.

The union has previously advised doctors to limit their engagement with the FDP for non-direct care due to these ethical and governance concerns raised by Palantir’s contracts with defence and security agencies.

Deputy chairman of the BMA’s GP committee England Dr David Wrigley warned taking away GPs’ duty to protect patients’ confidential records since the NHS’s creation in 1948 would “raise serious questions about who is safeguarding patients’ data.”

“It remains unclear what form the single patient record will take and if it will build on existing technologies, such as GP Connect, which already opens up the GP record to NHS organisations offering direct care, or if it will require a wholesale duplication of existing health records with control of this copy given to government,” he added.

Keep Our NHS Public co-chairman Dr John Puntis said: “The spy tech company Palantir is not a fit partner for the NHS and its contract for the FDP should be terminated at the first opportunity. 

“The Bill compels data-sharing with the government, moving aspects of data ownership and responsibility away from individual clinicians such as GPs, raising concerns about the security of sensitive patient information. 

“A single patient record is a desirable goal but needs public trust and should not be driven by a desire to make the NHS a more attractive area of investment for private companies.”

Campaign group medConfidential said: “If a patient is given a Single Patient Record, they must be given a receipt of access to go with it. 

“Political promises about safeguards are just empty platitudes unless patients can see in the NHS App who accessed their record to provide care and who was just creeping.”

Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs secretary Richard Burgon has written to the new Health Secretary James Murray urging him to ditch his predecessor Wes Streeting’s plan to use private finance schemes to build new neighbourhood health centres.

He warned: “PFI in our NHS was a costly disaster. It funnelled billions away from patient care and into the pockets of private firms.”

Dr Puntis backed the call for Mr Murray to “seize the initiative… given the manifesto commitment that the NHS would always be publicly funded. 

“Forty Labour MPs have already told the Chancellor that using private finance cannot be in the long-term public interest. 

“Not only is it more expensive than government borrowing but contracts inevitably mean that profits are privatised while risks are socialised. This zombie policy is about ideology, false accounting, political dishonesty and collusion with the private sector. It deserves a quick reburial.”

Ms Pile added: “The government must also remove the clause in the Bill allowing the health secretary power to increase the scale of private provision of health services on a whim.

“In opposition, Labour promised the biggest wave of insourcing of public services in a generation. It’s time to start making good on that commitment.”