Technology

A cyber attack on NHS Scotland websites sent users towards adult content and illegal streams, which is one way to remind people public services now have front doors made of code. Patient records were apparently untouched. The embarrassment, however, seems to have got through without needing a password.

The NHS telling Palantir its contract is not guaranteed feels like a note pinned to a very expensive machine. The data platform was sold as a fix for waiting lists. Now it also has to fix the public’s trust.

The NHS App is being turned into a digital health companion, which is a phrase that tends to arrive just before privacy groups start sharpening their questions. £160 million, private contractors and medical data: three things guaranteed to make ministers sound calm and everyone else read the small print.

NHS England moving code behind closed doors is the sort of security measure that makes everyone feel slightly less safe for different reasons. Developers see secrecy. Officials see fewer holes for AI to sniff out. The public sees another digital decision arriving with a locked cupboard and a memo.

Doctolib is putting £100 million into UK primary care after buying Medicus. The promise is fewer admin headaches, better booking and quicker triage. The worry is patient data disappearing into another corporate cloud with a reassuring name and a privacy policy nobody reads unless something has already gone wrong.