back to article UK consortium set to bid for £480 million NHS data platform

The contentious procurement of the UK health service's £480 million ($580 million) Federated Data Platform (FDP) – which US spy-tech firm Palantir is tipped to win – has seen a new competitor enter the fray in the form of a UK consortium of vendors. According to the Financial Times, Voror Health Technologies, Eclipse and Black …

  1. elsergiovolador Silver badge

    WEF

    It's interesting that very much every corporation involved in the pandemic is a WEF partner.

    It is just a coincidence, totally not staged at all.

    1. Sp1z

      Re: WEF

      Whenever I see your handle now I instantly ignore the content of the post because I know the only subject is going to be "WEF".

      Change the record.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: WEF

        Kind of wish there was a "mute" user function, there's a few nut jobs in here who have fallen into some deep, dark conspiratard traps

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: WEF

          There is. I've heard a couple of people ask for this so maybe it's not accessible for all, but to the right of the name there should be two icons (two because it seems the volume of posting was enough for a silver badge). The leftmost icon of the two should normally give you access to a block, and so prevent you from ever being bothered by comments of that person again.

          If that feature is not visible to all I'd like to hear from El Reg why not.

          That said, I tend not to use it myself. I prefer to keep an eye on things, also because it's then easier to report a post if it has come off the rails too much. That said, the moderators do their work too here.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Oh....and watch this space....

    Link: https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/23/amazon_one_medical_merger/

    Yup.....Amazon getting in on the "medical records" action in the US.

    My nightmare:

    (1) Amazon in bed with Palantir

    (2) Amazon provides details of retail sales (meds, medical equipment, medical supplies,......)

    (3) .... and Palantir provides medical records, names, addresses, email addresses, doctor's names, surgery details......

    Perhaps our friendly representatives in Westminster have already received the Fortnum's bags!!!!!

    1. elsergiovolador Silver badge

      Re: Oh....and watch this space....

      That forum in Davos when they "just talk" seem to have the whole concept nailed to a T.

    2. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge
      Alert

      Re: Oh....and watch this space....

      Follow the Money[Fortnum's bags]

  3. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge
    Holmes

    WTF

    particularly in terms of its meticulous protection of patient data

    Where is the sarcasm icon?

    Not when salivating ministers are not being transparent when awarding contracts

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: WTF

      "Where is the sarcasm icon?"

      Possibly it should be more like a 'Brown Envelope' icon

      or

      a suit jacket icon with over-stuffed pockets ..... if you get my drift !!!

      :)

  4. alain williams Silver badge

    I hope yhat they win it

    * keep the £480 million in the UK

    * grow IT skills/solutions in the UK -- will let us better compete for similar in other countries

    * keep our personal data private -- away from grubby/leaky USA companies

    This is the sort of joined up thinking that our government should be doing; but I fear that they are not

    I wonder if FDP have the right sort of brown envelopes to help them win this

    1. localzuk

      Re: I hope yhat they win it

      I suspect the third point won't be quite true. Whoever wins it will probably end up using one of the various cloud providers. Nearly all of them US companies.

    2. cyberdemon Silver badge
      Devil

      The real question for me is

      Do we really need to spend £480+ million on a Federated Data Platform?

      And if so, why should it be given to private companies at all? Couldn't we grow some in-house IT expertise for once?

      1. GioCiampa

        Re: The real question for me is

        Agreed! We do have the expertise in-house, but more often than some fad or other comes along and any such resources are then either underutilised, or dispensed with altogether.

        (Disclaimer: I work for the NHS on a prescription system, developed in-house, that has existed in one form or another, and evolved as a result, for 30+ years)

      2. localzuk

        Re: The real question for me is

        Where's the private profit in that though!?

      3. mmonroe

        Re: The real question for me is

        £480m is cheap - it's not even 1.5 times the amount Bozo painted on the side of his bus. It will paid for in a fortnight.

    3. Roland6 Silver badge

      Re: I hope yhat they win it

      The Conservatives have form, for ignoring the sensible option and go with the US option on some pretext such as it was “cheaper”, “synergies” etc. then turnaround and bemoan the lack of a UK tech sector, if only UK workers weren’t so overpaid and lazy…

    4. anothercynic Silver badge

      Re: I hope yhat they win it

      You hope. I think we all do. But inevitably, I would not be surprised if Palantir suddenly decided to take some of Thiel's pocket money and buy their way into the consortium by the back door and then one by one take over the members...

  5. BebopWeBop
    Facepalm

    Isn't this the English health service - not the UK health service?

    Come on El Reg you have form with this sloppy distinction - get a grip.

    1. Al fazed
      Joke

      Hmmm

      The article was possible written in America or Oz.............

      ALF

    2. cyberdemon Silver badge
      Trollface

      Doesn't really matter. The terms will be equivalent soon, when Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales leave the UK.

      1. Snowy Silver badge
        Flame

        I wish they would just make up their mines and leave or just tell the SNP to shut up.

    3. anothercynic Silver badge

      If the contract is specific to NHS England, then you have a point, but the NHS exists in Scotland and Wales too. Northern Ireland has an NHS-like body but it's not called the NHS. There it's called HSCNI.

      Keep in mind that politicians (especially those who spaff out sound bites such as this one) don't particularly care for/know about these subtle distinctions either.

      1. BebopWeBop

        Actually, it is the SNHS in Scotland - but the article assumes that this 'initiative' to carve out public monies for the private sector is claimed to be a UK wide program.

  6. Paul 87

    Ironically health records may actually be a good use of blockchain technology, if it can have strong access control restrictions

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    UK Consortium?

    Exactly how many minutes after getting the contract is the wait before getting bought/ merged/ taken over?

  8. VseGood

    This is not the most vivid example.

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