Dr. Marc Farr, president of the Chief Data and Analytics Network and national president of the Association of Professional Healthcare Analysts (AphA) (Credit: Marc Farr)
NHS England’s mandate for all providers to adopt the Federated Data Platform (FDP) has been criticized for being “disagreeing” with existing policy and promoting a product that doctors do not believe is “up to the job” for patients.
NHSE’s medium-term planning framework, published on 24 October 2025, stated that all trusts and integrated care boards (ICBs) should join the NHS FDP and use its core products to support elective recovery, cancer and urgent and emergency care.
However, Marc Farr, president of the Chief Data and Analytics Network, said Digital health news that the guide is “at odds with existing policy that says to consider the FDP, but if you already have data and tools, then you can proceed and not use them.”
He previously wrote an open letter to Ming Tang, NHSE’s director of data and analytics, raising concerns about whether the FDP is capable of supporting on-premises systems.
NHS trusts with their own products have consistently rejected adoption of the FDP and, despite 150 trusts having joined, only 77 were active and actively reporting profits in September 2025, according to NHSE figures.
One consortium that has expressed a preference for its own products is the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, which reportedly told NHSE earlier this year that adopting some of the FDP tools would lead to it “losing functionality rather than gaining it”.
A spokesperson for Leeds Teaching Hospitals said Digital health news that that has implemented the FDP treatment referral validation tool, but will “continue to use” its own products to providing outpatient care coordination and discharge planning services.
Meanwhile, Greater Manchester ICB, which has its own mature interconnected data systems including GM Care Record, Analytics and Data Science Platform and Secure Data Environment for Research, remains the only ICB not having signed up to the NHS FDP.
A spokesperson for Greater Manchester said Digital Health News: “While the Board has not yet committed to adoption, we remain engaged in discussions to shape guidance and explore how the FDP could complement our local data platforms.”
In October 2025, Tang appeared to criticize providers who continue to use their own products, calling leaders’ egos “the biggest challenge to NHS technology adoption.”
In response, Rosa Curling, co-CEO of Foxglovea non-profit organization that previously launched a campaign against the FDP provider Palantirsaid: “NHS bosses have chosen to blame the slow adoption of FDP on ‘ego’ and ‘ideology’, but the truth seems more mundane: doctors simply don’t seem convinced that Palantir’s kit is up to the task for their patients.
“We have seen major NHS trusts in Manchester and Leeds say the FDP would not improve the systems they already have or, in some cases, reduce quality.
“Unless NHSE can address those concerns publicly and transparently to both doctors and patients, it is difficult to see why they should accept Palantir’s failed product, no matter how many arbitrary deadlines NHSE decides to announce.”
