UK health dept contracts ‘critical friend’ for data platform • The Register

In response to the widespread controversy surrounding the UK well being division’s try to purchase a Federated Information Platform (FDP) – a contest that incumbent provider Palantir considers a “must-win” – NHS England has reached for a “essential good friend.”

Seemingly unable to course of criticism from marketing campaign teams, former NHS professionals, and even the well being service’s personal Nationwide Information Guardian, the non-departmental authorities physique has contracted Qi Consulting Restricted to “present constructive suggestions and problem on programme plans and merchandise being developed,” in line with a contract discover revealed this week.

In January, NHS England and NHS Enchancment launched the competitors for a brand new £480 million ($580 million) knowledge platform which promised to assist “quickly scale and share revolutionary options that immediately addresses the challenges most urgent for the NHS.”

However the historical past of the procurement has not been universally joyful. In November, US spy-tech agency Palantir received a £23 million ($28 million) contract with out competitors to increase its work on the platform. The deal, which was prolonged with out competitors in January, was topic to threats of judicial evaluate, after which the NHS agreed to not prolong it with out public session.

Authorized campaigners at Foxglove stated the group and its companions at Simply Therapy, the Medical doctors Affiliation UK, and the Nationwide Pensioners Conference have serious concerns about the FDP.

The UK’s family doctors’ conference has known as for higher scrutiny of bidders on the FDP contract to make sure they’ve a constructive monitor report on safety, privateness and ethics. In November final yr, the Division for Well being and Social Care’s personal National Data Guardian warned the challenge “should keep away from frequent pitfalls round belief and transparency which have pissed off earlier initiatives on this space.”

However none of that criticism and concern has seemingly been sufficient for NHS England. To get the proper of “pleasant” criticism, it has contracted Qi Consulting and – as a measure of the relative worth it locations on such suggestions – awarded the corporate a deal price £35,640.

The consultancy can stay up for awkward lunchtime chats with fellow consultants additionally contracted to NHS England to assist with its knowledge technique.

International agency McKinsey & Firm received a £1 million ($1.2 million) deal to “design the working mannequin for Information and Analytics within the newly merged NHS England organisation” which started final December and ends on March 31.

The dire state of NHS know-how was keenly demonstrated by a report into the catastrophic failure at Man’s and St Thomas’ NHS Basis Belief which discovered the complexity associated with 371 legacy IT systems meant it took two months to fully get better companies.

However whereas NHS England is discovering the cash to spend on tech consultants – and the deliberate FDP – getting money for the precise know-how that runs the well being service on the bottom is extra of a problem.

NHS England’s know-how spending is about to dip under £1 billion after a major amount of money was diverted elsewhere, according to specialist NHS publication the HSJ. The journal stated tech funding was price lower than half of the £2.1 billion ($2.5 billion) earmarked within the 2021 Autumn Spending Evaluate. ®