Trial will allow women to book breast diagnostic clinics via NHS App

Women in Somerset with breast lumps will be directly referred to a breast diagnostic clinic via the NHS App under a pilot scheme, health secretary Wes Streeting has announced.

Speaking at the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Conference in Liverpool on 4 October 2024, Streeting confirmed that women who need diagnostic testing will be able to book via the NHS App under the scheme, without the need for a GP appointment.

The pilot, which is planned to launch in November 2024, will be evaluated before considering a further rollout across England.

Streeting told the RCGP Conference that staff and patients are frustrated with “pointless appointments”.

“You didn’t go through five years of medical school plus five years of training to tick boxes.

“So where there are appointments that can be cut out, with patients seen by specialists faster and GPs’ time freed up to do what only GPs can do, we will act.

“Starting in November, 111 online, which is available through the NHS app, will pilot directly referring women with a worrying lump to a breast clinic.

“That means faster diagnosis for cancer patients,”  Streeting said.

He added that this will free up GP appointments and is “better for patients and better for GPs”.

“I suspect there are cases that come across your desks every week, where a patient has been passed to you by someone else in the NHS to refer them on to someone else in the NHS.

“It is a waste of everyone’s time, including yours, and where you give us examples of patient pathways that can be simplified through appropriate patient self-referral or direct referral by other NHS services to save your time, we will act,” Streeting said.

Another new feature which allows patients to trace the status and readiness of their prescriptions via the NHS App was launched in September 2024 under a trial before national rollout in 2025.

Healthcare leaders recently urged NHS England to unleash the full potential of the NHS App, following critique from Lord Darzi in his independent investigation into the state of the NHS in England.

Streeting also outlined steps the government is taking to support the primary care sector, including better use of NHS data through the creation of a single patient data record.

“We need to work together to create a single patient record, owned by the patient, shared across the system so that every part of the NHS has a full picture of the patient.

“This applies as much to research as to care. The two go hand in hand.

“World-leading studies like the UK Biobank, Genomics England, and Our Future Health are building up incredibly detailed profiles of our nation’s health.

“Patients have given their consent for their data to be shared with these studies.

“But we still see, far too often, that this data is not shared according to patients’ wishes,” Streeting said.

Creating single patient records will form part of the 10-year health plan, announced by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, following the publication of Lord Darzi’s review on 12 September 2024.