An open letter circulating on Hacker News urges NHS England to honor its own open‑source commitments. The petition argues that code funded by taxpayers belongs to the public, a stance embedded in the UK Government Design Principles and the NHS Service Standard. Signatories include engineers from Google, Sainsbury’s and academic researchers, all demanding transparency to ensure accountability and long‑term trust.

Critics point to a recent “SDLC‑8 red line” decision that would conceal repositories behind a closed‑source wall, citing AI‑related hacking fears. Opponents counter that open code forces higher quality, continuous vulnerability scanning and a defensive “immune system” that hidden code cannot provide. The letter cites Principle 12 of the Service Standard, which mandates new code be released publicly, through collaborative peer review.

As of May 1, the petition lists 23 signatures, ranging from core team leads at Nuxt to clinicians at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. Organizers promise manual review of each entry before publishing. By keeping the code open, they argue, the NHS can maintain auditability, encourage community contributions, and avoid the false security of obscurity for patients and developers alike.