Protestors opposed to integration of a US AI firm in South Yorkshire NHS services demonstrated outside Sheffield Town Hall this morning.
The rally was held before the City Council’s Health Scrutiny Sub-Committee meeting, where committee members discussed the integration of Palantir into the South Yorkshire NHS.
Dr Rory Gibson, resident doctor and co-coordinator of the campaign group Medact, said: “I used to feel like I could assure my patients their information was safe. That confidence has gone out the window.
“I really do not feel like I can reassure someone that the things that they tell me won’t be shared with someone at the Home Office.”
Members of Medact Sheffield, including Dr Gibson, were invited to the meeting to raise their concerns surrounding the AI data collection systems, hoping to dissuade the committee from investing in the systems, directly motivated by Palantir’s history of data leaks and breaches.
The demonstration featured speakers from organisations like Sheffield Green Party, Health workers for Palestine, and Medact Sheffield, who organised the event, all campaigning against the integration of Palantir systems into the NHS.
Founded by Peter Thiel in 2003, Palantir specialises in software that brings together and analyses data from different computer systems.
Despite the contract from Britain’s health service, its main customers are defence departments, intelligence services and police forces.
Despite these serious concerns about the company, both Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, which runs the Royal Hallamshire and the Northern General, and the South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board, which is responsible for commissioning services and funding primary care, refused to rule out the adoption of Palantir’s software.
Concerns with Palantir’s integration into the NHS in South Yorkshire have grown as an increasing number of patients feel their information is not secure, leading to falling trust in the NHS and the public’s confidential medical data.
Palantir, the data collection and analysis company based in the US, has come under fire for its involvement in the American military and its huge investments into artificial intelligence and data centres that are believed to be very damaging to the environment.
Medact, and their collaborators, hope to maintain a data-secure and independent NHS, with other protests and demonstrations planned for the rest of the year.