NHS England says that software that pulls together masses of records will allow doctors to spot patterns in illness, use resources better and improve hospitals falling behind on backlog recovery. They insist this is not a database and the company operating the software will not be able to see medical records.

However, others in the health service are scarred by the collapse a decade ago of the care.data scheme to create a database of GP records, which was abandoned after a revolt by family doctors.

There is nervousness among senior doctors that the NHS has not explained the rationale for the scheme and the potential role of Palantir.