CAMPAIGNERS who have urged the NHS to drop a controversial contract with a US surveillance firm staged a protest outside Barnsley Hospital.

Representatives of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the Green Party and Your Party lobbied last week against Palantir’s involvement in the NHS.

Palantir was promoted to the Labour government by Peter Mandelson when he was American ambassador, following which it was awarded a £330m contract to integrate NHS hospital information systems.

There have been major concerns about Palantir’s closeness to the Trump administration and government agencies in the UK and around the world, its complicity in human rights abuses in Palestine and the United States and the safety of people’s private medical records in its hands, according to the campaigners.

Protesters called for Palantir’s involvement in the NHS to be brought to an end.

Spokesperson Tony Nuttall told the Chronicle: “Palantir is not a suitable partner for the NHS and its involvement risks enormous loss of trust in our public health service by patients and staff.

“The NHS nationally should take advantage of an opportunity to break the contract in 2027.”

Supporters say the technology is already helping the NHS treat more patients and manage pressure on services, but critics argue it raises wider concerns about privacy, ethics and the role of large technology companies in handling sensitive public sector data.

Tony added: “All hospital trusts are under enormous pressure from national level to work with Palantir, though this is not mandatory and some, including the Manchester area hospitals, have refused to co-operate.

“Barnsley Hospital is to the fore in terms of implemention, with a Palantir system already up and running in the outpatient department.

“Some of the board members in Barnsley recognised that there were arguments against involvement with Palantir, and were urged to re-consider their position.

“The lobby submitted a question to the meeting asking if the hospital would decline to implement Palantir systems and explain to NHS England its reasons for doing so.

“A formal reply by the hospital is awaited and will be made public.”

An NHS spokesperson said the software is ‘already making a difference’ for patients and staff.

“Data remains under NHS control at all times.

“The supplier will not control the data in the platform, nor will they be permitted to access, use or share it for their own purposes.

“The supplier will only operate under the instruction of the NHS when processing data on the platform and the contract has strict stipulations about confidentiality.”