THE CORRIDOR • NHS EDITION • WEDNESDAY

The Only One That Said No.

Personalised for NHS Greater Manchester ICB • Edition N2 • 20 May 2026

THE CORRIDOR INDEX - NHS GREATER MANCHESTER

Sources: The Register, Graphnet, NHS England Digital Maturity Assessment 2025, Kings Fund.

Where solutions come to life over the water fountain rather than wait to die in a queue.

Greater Manchester is the only integrated care board in England that said no to Palantir. Not "not yet." Not "deferred pending review." No. Their Chief Intelligence and Analytics Officer, Matt Hennessey, told the board that their own platform exceeds anything the Federated Data Platform currently offers. The board agreed. Twice. Then confirmed it permanently.

Now the Chair is leaving in June. The CEO left in March. The government just announced a devolution deal that rewrites the power structure. Everyone wants to know the same thing: does the stance survive the leadership change?

THIS WEEK FOR GREATER MANCHESTER

1. Palantir can see patient data. GM still says no.
NHS England confirmed on 12 May that Palantir staff have "unlimited access" to identifiable patient data via the GBP 330 million Federated Data Platform. The BMA called for doctors to reject it. Medact published a briefing. Parliament debated it on 16 April. Greater Manchester's response via FOI: "No compelling evidence that the value proposition for NHS GM from FDP has materially changed in favour of adoption." That is not hedging. That is a position. The ADSP - built on Snowflake, Matillion, DataRobot, and Tableau - covers finance, workforce, events, supply chain data with unified governance. Hennessey calls it "a hard-won foundation of trust." [The Register May 2026, FOI, HIGH confidence]

2. The Chair is leaving. The CEO already left. Who holds the line?
Sir Richard Leese steps down as Chair on 30 June 2026 (he will be 75). Mark Fisher CBE retired end of March after a whistleblowing investigation cleared him. Prof Colin Scales is Acting CEO - he has the background (COO at Bridgewater, Deputy CEO at Heatherwood & Wexham Park) but not yet the substantive appointment. Recruitment is active. No named successor for Chair as of today. The Palantir refusal was a board decision, but it was Hennessey's analysis and Leese's chairmanship that carried it through twice. The question is not academic. [Healthcare Management, Alumni Global CEO listing, HIGH confidence]

3. Devolution just changed the game. Again.
On 25 March 2026, Health Secretary Wes Streeting announced a new devolution deal for Greater Manchester and South Yorkshire. ICB chairs will now also serve as the mayor's "health commissioner" - deputy mayors for health, reporting jointly to NHS and elected mayors. This is not just governance cosmetics. It means the new GM Chair will have dual accountability: NHS England AND the Mayor. Prevention becomes a statutory priority. Housing, transport, and health are formally joined. Greater Manchester has had health devolution since 2015 (GBP 6 billion budget). This makes it constitutional. [GOV.UK, GMHSC, HIGH confidence]

4. The care record is working. The numbers prove it.
GMCR (Greater Manchester Care Record, powered by Graphnet) now serves 2.8 million residents across 500+ organisations. 10,500 clinicians access it monthly. The killer number: 86% of patients with a GMCR Supportive and Palliative Care Summary (EPaCCS) die in their preferred place of death. Without it: 44%. That is not a technology metric. That is a dignity metric. Digital care plans and the My GM Care patient app are moving from pilot to system-wide rollout. Bolton care teams can now access GP correspondence digitally for the first time. Named HealthTech Project of the Year. GBP 7.5M in additional funding awarded. [Graphnet, Health Innovation Manchester, HIGH confidence]

5. Epic Hive at MFT - three years on.
Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust's Hive EPR (Epic-powered) went live September 2022. Three years later: single trust-wide record across all hospitals. MyMFT patient app. Ranked most digitally mature acute trust in England (Digital Maturity Assessment 2025, score 3.6). Prof David Walliker (CDIO) sits on NHS England's 10-year data and technology plan working group. The success is real. The challenge is also real: legacy system decommissioning is ongoing and staff process changes continue. Integration is not a moment. It is a decade. [MFT, NHS England Digital, HIGH confidence]

6. Health Innovation Manchester keeps building.
GBP 30 million additional funding for the Health Innovation Accelerator programme. Advanced Diagnostics Accelerator targeting liver, heart, lung disease, and lung cancer across the 2.8 million population. DEVOTE genomic testing programme. Ben Bridgewater (CEO) now also Executive Chair of the national Health Innovation Network. Dr Gareth Thomas - ex-Deputy National CCIO, ex-NCA Group CCIO - runs the GM Shared Care Record and Secure Data Environment. The delivery arm is serious. [HInM, University of Manchester, HIGH confidence]

THE NUMBERS

THE WATER FOUNTAIN

Everyone in GM health is asking the same question: who is the new Chair? The devolution deal means they are also the Mayor's health commissioner. That is a political appointment as much as a governance one. Andy Burnham's office will have a view. NHS England will have a different view. The Palantir stance lives or dies with whoever sits in that chair.

Matt Hennessey is the asset. He built the analysis, he presented it to the board, he has the public track record. If the new Chair is a technologist, the ADSP stays. If the new Chair is a pragmatist under financial pressure, the GBP 610 million deficit becomes the argument for "taking what NHSE offers." Watch the appointment.

Meanwhile, GMMH (mental health trust) hired a new CIO in September 2025 and is advertising for a CCIO. The mental health digital gap in GM is the quiet problem nobody is talking about yet.

The Water Fountain: what people are saying in the corridor. Not verified. Worth knowing.

BOTTOM LINE FOR GREATER MANCHESTER

Greater Manchester has something nobody else in England has: a working alternative to Palantir. ADSP. GMCR. Epic Hive at MFT. Health Innovation Manchester. The most digitally mature ICS in the country, built on a decade of devolution and a GBP 6 billion health budget.

But the leadership is in transition. Chair leaving June. CEO vacancy. New devolution structure incoming. Forty-two ICBs merging to twenty-six. The national machinery wants conformity. GM's entire identity is built on autonomy.

The platform is sovereign. The question is whether the politics lets it stay that way.

SOURCES

1. The Register - GM refuses Palantir FDP (May 2025, Nov 2025, May 2026) - theregister.com
2. GOV.UK - Health devolution announcement (25 March 2026) - gov.uk
3. Healthcare Management - Sir Richard Leese stepping down (2026) - healthcare-management.uk
4. Graphnet Health - GMCR case study and EPaCCS outcomes - graphnethealth.com
5. Health Innovation Manchester - HIA programme, Dr Gareth Thomas appointment - healthinnovationmanchester.com
6. NHS England Digital - Digital Maturity Assessment 2024-2025 (March 2026) - digital.nhs.uk
7. MFT - Hive EPR and MyMFT portal - mft.nhs.uk
8. Alumni Global - GM ICB CEO recruitment listing - alumniglobal.com
9. Medact - Palantir FDP briefing (Feb 2026) - medact.org
10. GMHSC - Mayor co-chair ICP announcement - gmintegratedcare.org.uk
11. Kings Fund - NHS deficit tracker - kingsfund.org.uk

The Corridor is produced by Willow at AgileMesh. Where solutions come to life over the water fountain.

Wednesday edition - personalised for NHS Greater Manchester ICB. Not for redistribution.