The Financial Times reported this week that NHS England has granted Palantir contractors "unlimited access" to patient data. The headline is alarming, but the reality is more mundane, and I can say that with some authority: the NHSE engineering team I led built the National Data Integration Tenant (NDIT), and I sat on the leadership group overseeing its development. I know how it works.

The Canonical Data Model (CDM) is the most valuable asset in the NHS Federated Data Platform. If it falls short, it will be because the CDM was not given the governance, resources, and collaborative development it needs.

Most of the conversation about FDP is about whether it should exist, or who should supply it. Almost nobody is talking about what it can actually do. The organisations that understand that now will be years ahead of those that don't.

On Thursday, MPs debated the NHS Federated Data Platform in Westminster Hall. I was struck by how much of the conversation was shaped by incomplete information. That is a gap I would like to help fill.

For the past two years I have watched people who have never logged into the system confidently explain what is wrong with it. I am speaking up because I have watched the public debate about FDP become so detached from the technical reality that it is now actively harming the NHS.