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KPMG bags £8.5M NHS gig as cheerleader for Federated Data Platform rollout

(2024/04/16)


The UK's health department has awarded global consultancy KPMG an £8.5 million ($10.5 million) contract to help implement the controversial Federated Data Platform (FDP) at a local level.

NHS England, an executive non-departmental public body, has awarded the deal "for technical support and implementation services" to help Integrated Care Boards (ICB) and NHS trusts – such as hospitals – in England to implement the FDP software. ICBs help manage care across health services on a local basis.

In November last year, NHS England awarded a £330 million ($410 million) contract for the FDP to US spy-tech company Palantir after series of contracts totaling £60 million ($75 million) were awarded to the vendor without competition during and shortly after the pandemic. The FDP is designed to employ business intelligence and analytics to help the NHS recover from a huge backlog in care resulting from the COVID-19 emergency.

[1]

According to a [2]procurement contract notice , KPMG "will support the NHSE Data Services team to not only build the Federated Data Platform (FDP) capability, but enhance the Data Service functions, platforms and integrating services to support the transformation change."

[3]

[4]

It will also "support ICBs and Trusts in implementing their individual federated platforms, which will in turn feed into the national model." The contract was awarded via a "call-off" from an existing framework agreement.

Within the questionnaire for selecting the supplier – revealed in the heavily redacted contract – NHS England asks the prospective supplier how they would approach "supporting the development of an appropriate business change strategy to promote adoption of FDP."

[5]UK health department republishes £330M Palantir contract with fewer ██████

[6]UK finance minister promises NHS £3.4B IT investment to unlock £35B savings

[7]Legal campaigners challenge UK.gov decision to redact NHS-Palantir contract

[8]Expert sounds alarm bells over upcoming NHS data platform

NHS England has said the FDP would "make it easier for staff at NHS trusts and ICS (integrated care systems) to access the information they need, freeing up valuable time to reinvest in delivering the best care possible for patients." It said in the future the platform would also help "understand patterns, solve problems, and plan services for their local populations."

Yet NHS England still requires KPMG to "promote" the service further.

[9]

This might be explained by a degree of unwillingness to back the FDP at a regional and local level. In October, 14 directors from organizations signed up to FDP pilots signed an NHS England open letter supporting FDP. But according to [10]Digital Health News , only about half of ICB chief officers were willing to add their names to a similar letter.

Meanwhile, the FDP remains a controversial project to the public. It could be set to face two legal challenges over [11]its openness and the [12]lawful basis for collecting patient data.

NHS England has disputed the claims, but KPMG may yet have its work cut out for it. ®

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[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Zh6gnDWt3L4xvaWttn88@QAAAEk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0

[2] https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/notice/dda25018-75fb-42bc-baf3-aabb1e1bd1e1?origin=SearchResults&p=1

[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Zh6gnDWt3L4xvaWttn88@QAAAEk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Zh6gnDWt3L4xvaWttn88@QAAAEk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[5] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/25/nhs_palantir_contract_republished/

[6] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/07/uk_finance_minister_promises_nhs/

[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/20/legal_campaigners_challenge_government_decision/

[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/05/health_services_safety_fdp/

[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Zh6gnDWt3L4xvaWttn88@QAAAEk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[10] https://www.digitalhealth.net/2023/10/nhs-england-has-not-yet-proven-its-case-on-fdp/

[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/20/legal_campaigners_challenge_government_decision/

[12] https://www.theregister.com/2023/12/01/nhs_palantir_legal_challenge/

[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/



Nearly 400 million

ChrisElvidge

I thought that Brexit would give the NHS nearly this every week.

Why are we giving it to essentially American companies?

I wonder what Palantir and KPMG get out of this, over and above the fee

Would it not be better to spend this amount on new, or refurbish, buildings and more staff to return the NHS to a working, at the point of patient contact, service as it was set up to be, and fix the data system afterwards?

KPMG help to implement Federated Data Platform (FDP)

Anonymous Coward

Has KPMG a track record in implementing such a system. Or will they out-source it to another outsourcing outfit. These Multinationals usually have a full-time office devoted to massaging their reputation on Wikipedia. Lets go have a gander: [1]KPMG International Limited .

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KPMG

The thing is...

Terry 6

I'd like my local GP services and hospitals to be able to access my files if I need them to. I don't want those files to be raked over by anyone who thinks they know how to make use of the data. I absolutely would not give any consent to have those files shared with commercial companies, so that the usual suspects can earn a few more yachts mining my (our) data.

And my trust in either the government or those companies to turn down the lucrative promise of that data mining is somewhat less than by belief in the Tooth Fairy

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19.05 via NFS from a remote Linux machine in Paraguay doesn't seem to
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