Women will get routine reminders and options to book cancer screening through the NHS App, under a scheme being rolled out by the NHS over the next two years.
From next month the ‘ping and book’ service will start to operate through the NHS App, with reminders popping up in phones, NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard said.
In addition, new functionality being developed will enable women to book screening through the NHS App from next year, she said.
It is part of reforms to fully digitise screening delivery which the NHS said would save £130m over the next five years.
Invitations for breast screening will be sent directly via the NHS App starting from next month.
The approach will be expanded to cervical screening in spring 2025. From early 2026, millions of women will be able to book breast screening appointments through the NHS App.
Under the plans, eligible women will first receive a notification through the App to remind them to book an appointment, followed by an email or text message if they don’t respond, followed by a letter through the post if neither of the first two reminders have been responded to.
NHS cancer screening programmes currently send over 25 million invitations, reminders and results letters to patients by post, costing £14.7 million every year.
But figures show that uptake for breast and cervical screening have declined in recent years.
In 2022/23 more than a third of women did not take up the offer of breast screening following an invitation, with 2.18 million eligible women not having had a mammogram in the last three years.
Similar trends have been seen for cervical screening as latest figures show a third of eligible under-50s did not take up the offer.
As of December 2023, 65.8% of the 11 million eligible 25-49-year-olds had taken up their cervical screening invitation and were screened within the recommended time.
Ms Pritchard said: ‘We’re making massive strides with the NHS App, with patients getting more information, convenience and control over their own care, while helping us to work more productively too.
‘We are really excited by the potential of technology to revolutionise access to cancer screening for women and help ensure everyone eligible can make the most of these life-saving services at the touch of a button.’
Health and social care secretary Wes Streeting said: ‘If we’re going to make the NHS fit for the future, we need to catch cancers earlier so that we can give people the best possible chance of survival.
‘This is a great example of shifting the NHS from analogue to digital and the benefits of a modern health service, which this government will deliver as part of our 10 Year Health Plan.’
Last year, the NHS pledged to eliminate cervical cancer by 2040 by making it ‘as easy as possible’ for people to receive a HPV vaccination and increasing cervical screening uptake.
In October, the NHS announced a pilot scheme that would directly refer women with red flag symptoms to a breast diagnostic clinic without seeing a GP.
A version of this story was first published in our sister title Pulse.
