NHS England has signed consultancy KPMG to support the roll out of the Federated Data Platform (FDP) for the health service.
They have agreed on a two-year contract, which came into operation in mid-March and has a maximum value of £8.5 million, for the company to provide technical support and implementation services.
These will apply to supporting the development of the platform’s capabilities, and helping integrated care boards and trusts implement their own platforms to feed into the national model.
It is the latest step in the development of the platform, which will bring together data from multiple sources to support analysis and decision making by NHS bodies on public health issues.
Anxieties over prime contract
The initiative has stirred up controversy, largely due to the award of the prime contract for its development to a consortium led by led by US based Palantir Technologies. The company has a background in security and surveillance and its involvement has stirred up anxieties about how the data could be handled.
The full notice for the contract with KPMG says the full requirements for each project will depend on the size and number of trusts and other partners involved, and the complexity of their existing systems.
This will require the provision of multidisciplinary services and dynamic access to a flexible and scalable pool of resources with a wide range of skills at short notice. It will cover NHS functions including waiting list management, workforce planning, performance management and continuous improvement.
