Major AI project paused over patient data concerns

NHS England has paused a major AI project after concerns were raised about how the primary care records of 57 million people were used to train it.

The Joint General Practice IT Committee (JGPITC) – a collaboration between the Royal College of General Practitioners and the British Medical Association – wrote to NHSE last month to question the lawfulness of the Foresight AI project.

Foresight is the result of a data sharing agreement between NHSE and a consortium of researchers brought together by the British Heart Foundation. It will be used to predict potential future outcomes for patients that could be used to identify opportunities for early intervention.

In its letter, the JGPITC said it was “very surprised and extremely concerned” to learn of the project, which used the GPES Data for Pandemic Planning and Research dataset to train the AI model.

The committee said it had “serious concerns about the lawfulness of the data use for this project” and the “apparent absence of strict governance arrangements”.

An NHSE spokesperson said: “Maintaining patient privacy is central to this project and we are grateful to the Joint GP IT Committee for raising its concerns and meeting with us to discuss the strict governance and controls in place to ensure patients’ data remains secure.”

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Source: HSJ, 4 June 2025