The NHS is set to revolutionise access to cancer screening for women in a major drive to boost uptake and save thousands of lives.
From next month, the NHS will begin to roll out a new “ping and book” service, alerting the phones of women to remind them they are due or overdue an appointment, with new functionality being developed to enable millions to book screening through the NHS App next year.
The head of the health service, Amanda Pritchard, today set out reforms that will fully digitise screening delivery and help save the NHS over £130m over the next five years, while helping improve uptake by making it easier for women to take up the offer of screening.
Announcing the new drive in a speech at the NHS Providers’ annual conference, Amanda Pritchard, NHS chief executive, 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.
“Next month we’re starting the rollout of a new ‘ping and book’ approach for breast and cervical checks through the NHS App, which will replace costs of letters and text messages with pop-ups on your phone and help make it as convenient as possible to book appointments.”
Last year alone, NHS breast screening services detected cancers in 18,942 women across England, which otherwise may not have been diagnosed and treated until a later stage.
However despite rising uptake overall last year, the latest annual data (2022/23) shows more than a third of women (35.4%) 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.
The plans will see invitations for breast screening being sent directly via the NHS App beginning to scale from next month – to be expanded to cervical screening in the Spring 2025 – and from early 2026, the NHS is set to enable millions of women to book breast screening appointments through the App.
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.
