New service for women's cancer screenings

In a drive to boost uptake of breast and cancer screening services, the NHS has developed a new digital approach. 

From December, women across England who are eligible for breast screening appointments will start to receive a notification through the NHS App on their mobile phone. They will be able to follow this alert and book an appointment through the app.

If women don't respond to the alert, they will be sent an email or text message to follow up, followed by a letter through the post.

This service will be expanded to include cervical screening invitations in Spring 2025.

Why are the NHS making this change?

The change is intended to make it quicker and easier to book a screening appointment, hopefully increasing uptake of screening programmes. 

It is also more cost-effective for the NHS; cancer screening programmes currently send over 25 million invitations, reminders, and results letters to patients by post, costing £14.7 million every year.

Amanda Pritchard, NHS Chief Executive, said:

"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 (2022/2023) 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."

Who is eligible for breast and cervical screening?

Breast screening

Anyone registered with as female with a GP will be invited for NHS breast screening every 3 years, between the ages of 50 and 71. 

Occasionally women aged under 50 will be invited for breast screening, depending on other health factors.

You will not automatically be invited for breast screening if you are 71 or over. But you can still have breast screening every 3 years if you want to. Contact your local breast screening service to request an appointment.

If you're a trans man, trans woman, or non-binary you might not be invited automatically (depending on your registered gender marker at your GP practice). You may need to talk to your GP or local breast screening clinic to ask for an appointment.

Cervical screening

Cervical screening is available to women and people with a cervix aged 25 to 64 in England. If you're registered as female with your GP you will be sent an invitation automatically. 

Women aged 25 to 49 receive invitations every 3 years. People aged 50 to 64 receive invitations every 5 years.

If you're a trans man or non-binary you might not be invited automatically (depending on your registered gender marker at your GP practice). You may need to talk to your GP to ask for an appointment.

Why are cancer screening programmes important?

Cancer screening programmes - including breast and cervical screenings - can help to identify cancerous or abnormal cells at an early stage, before you show symptoms. Diagnosing cancer early helps to treat it.

Michelle Mitchell, Chief Executive at Cancer Research UK says:

“Screening programmes are effective tools in spotting cancer early, before symptoms start. Almost all breast cancer patients and 9 in 10 cervical cancer patients in England will survive their disease for five years or more if the disease is caught at the earliest stage.

“It’s important to remember that cancer screening is for people without symptoms though, so if you’ve noticed any changes that are not normal for you don’t wait for your next screening invite, talk to your doctor. It probably won’t be cancer, but if it is, spotting it early means that treatment is more likely to be successful.”