THE CRUNCH

NHS organisations caring for millions of people in England are turning down Palantir's patient data technology, according to freedom of information responses obtained by the Guardian. Health bosses told the paper they believe they can find better or equal alternatives in many cases. The £330m federated data platform, operated by the controversial US firm, has won some fans: certain health bodies said it made managing waiting lists easier and improved surgery scheduling. But others, from Gateshead to Truro, said they were declining to use it or had trialled it and reverted to their old systems.

The rejections come with pointed assessments. A Suffolk trust said other systems "supercede" the platform's functionality, while Greater Manchester's integrated care board called the Palantir system "duplicative" and "retrograde". The picture is therefore mixed rather than uniformly negative, with adoption decisions varying trust by trust across the country.