Alarm at NHS patient records being put under control of US private equity firm
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jul/27/nhs-patients-records-us-private-equity-firm-optum-uk-tpgOpen linkView original on lemmy.worldSyndicated from the fediverse. Read and engage on the original instance.
View original on lemmy.worldhttps://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jul/27/nhs-patients-records-us-private-equity-firm-optum-uk-tpgOpen linkView original on lemmy.world
15 replies
Don't trust ANY us entity with personal information. 10 years ago it was a bad idea, today it's just idiotic.
Whatever they've promised in terms of data safety should not be trusted, there are no guardrails for these companies and unless you want the whole planet to know about your most embarrassing medical information you should not let them have any of it
American here, y'all are fucked.
Why would they do this?
A whole shit load of money
A tonne of cash, an amusing clock and a sack of French porn.
The sack'o'porn was the tipping point.
Thiel wants that data, he wants data for the whole world
This time it isn't even Thiel, the company was originally the UK subsidiary of the technology arm of UHC (the large US health conglomerate whose insurance arm's CEO got shot by someone who is not Luigi Mangione because I was having a beer with him that night).
It now got bought by some private equity company that does healthtech among other things. It being a private equity company, its goal is to enshittify and IPO or sell on. Meaning the service WILL suffer and there's a nonzero chance they'll sell access to patient data to other companies quietly.
Thiel doesn't have much need for this one because he already has his grubby hands in the UK's health records via the Palantir NHS deal.
They will most likely also use the data to see how best they can milk the world with health insurances by doing some frequency vs cost analysis and making the insurance for more frequently needed health services more expensive.
I forgot about the NHS thing. All of it is just awful, the British people deserve better.
It's going to thiel
Thiel's already in via the scheduling thingy NHS is paying Palantir like 300 million quid for.
This is separate software and a separate company, meaning even more people have access to the UK's health records now.
Fuck that's awful
Labour loves endangering British citizens for their sick love affair with transphobic Washington DC.