Cambridge University Hospitals (CUH) has come under fire for allegedly censoring staff online, after doctors penned an open letter criticising the trust’s stance on the war in Gaza.

Multiple messages in internal CUH Facebook groups, discussing the open letter and the British Medical Association’s (BMA) motion to protect healthcare workers’ and students’ right to speak out on humanitarian crises without fear of sanction, were deleted.

When questioned why the posts were deleted, CUH management told a doctor that the group was not a place for “political posts”. A CUH spokesperson said that they provide a “variety of channels where staff are encouraged to provide feedback and raise concerns”.

The open letter was launched on 19th August, following a meeting between doctors and the Trust’s management discussing the war in Gaza six months earlier. It accused the trust of “a persistent culture of censorship,” claiming that posts relating to Gaza had been removed from CUH forums. After the letter was published, a Facebook post promoting it was also deleted.

Campaigners also called on CUH to clarify its position on the rollout of the NHS’ new data collection tool – the Federated Data Platform – which is produced by controversial American tech firm Palantir.

The FDP is currently being introduced in CUH hospitals, as part of a nationwide scheme introduced and recommended by NHS England. This comes in spite of widespread criticism from healthcare workers over the decision to work with Palantir due to their ties to the Israeli military.

The letter also questioned how Palantir would use the data, claiming that partnering with the tech firm “raises fears of inappropriate data sharing and surveillance of communities,” and is “incompatible with the core values of the NHS”.

Collaborating with Palantir on the FDP has also attracted criticism from the BMA, which passed a motion at its annual representative meeting urging the NHS to cut ties with American companies – calling Palantir “an unacceptable choice of partner” to handle patient data.

NHS officials claim that Palantir would not share any patient’s data, and that contracts for the FDP include strict confidentiality policies.

A Palantir spokesperson said: “The allegation that we would ′force healthcare workers to hand over patients’ data to corporations’ fundamentally misunderstands both our platform and business model.”

Doctors at CUH are also calling on the trust to review their association with pharmaceutical companies allegedly complicit in “potential complicity in violations of international law”. This included Teva pharmaceuticals, an Israeli company which produces commonly used products like Sudocreme and Copaxone.

A doctor who signed the open letter called for CUH to cut ties with Palantir and Teva. They alleged: “The NHS’s Federated Data Platform (FDP), awarded to Palantir, represents a dangerous step towards outsourcing public data to corporations with an extremely chequered record.

“Centralising health records can improve patient care, but not when controlled by an American software company that consistently uses data and artificial intelligence as instruments of control and warfare: predictive policing, powering deportations with ICE in the US, military operations in Ukraine, Iraq, Afghanistan and the genocide in Gaza.

“The boycott of Teva Pharmaceuticals follows similar ethical principles. Teva, Israel’s largest pharmaceutical company, has a long, well-established record of corruption, bribery of American and European government officials, market manipulation and price-fixing, while providing steadfast support to the Israeli military and profiting from apartheid,” they continued.

This criticism comes after Teva was fined €462.6 million by the European Commission for antitrust violations, including market manipulation and spreading misinformation about rival companies’ drugs.

The pharmaceutical giant was also forced by the US Department of Justice in 2016 to pay $283 million for bribing multiple government officials in Russia, Ukraine, and Mexico.

These scandals, along with the company’s close relationship with the IDF, led over 50 consultants at Children’s Health Ireland to call on the state to stop purchasing Teva drugs.

A spokesperson for CUH told Varsity “We are one of 130 NHS Trusts to have followed the NHS England recommendation to sign up to the NHS Federated Data Platform. We are working with our Integrated Care Board to use Optica to enable medically fit patients to return home more quickly.

“CUH actively promotes an open and transparent culture which is essential to improving the care we provide. We have a variety of channels where staff are encouraged to provide feedback and raise concerns, including our confidential Freedom to Speak Up programme.”

A spokesperson for Palantir told Varsity: “Palantir software, through the Federated Data Platform, is helping to improve patient care. Results so far include 75, 000 additional procedures in theatres and an average 17% reduction in delay days for long stay patients.

“While we are proud of these results, we recognise that the privilege of serving the NHS rightly comes with scrutiny. It is important that such scrutiny deals in facts and, sadly, this letter is riddled with inaccuracies.

“The allegation that we would ′force healthcare workers to hand over patients’ data to corporations’ fundamentally misunderstands both our platform and business model. Palantir is a data processor, not a data owner. It would be illegal - not to mention technically impossible. Nor is Palantir involved in any predictive policing work anywhere in the world, as a matter of company policy.”

Teva was contacted for comment.