A trial is being planned to allow women with worrying breast cancer symptoms in one area of ​​England to book an appointment directly at a diagnostic clinic without seeing their GP.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the aim was to diagnose cancer patients more quickly and free up more GP appointments.

The Royal College of GPs said the safety and effectiveness of the scheme would need to be rigorously evaluated.

The pilot project will take place in Somerset and start in November.

The charity Breast Cancer Now said it welcomed the Government’s focus on ensuring more people are referred to a specialist immediately if breast changes are detected.

GPs currently refer women of any age with worrying symptoms to a breast clinic.

Breast screening, which detects hidden cancers, is offered every three years to women ages 50 to 71.

In the new trial, women who contact 111 online with a worrying breast lump will be referred straight to a specialist clinic via the NHS app, the government said.

It said the scheme would be evaluated before implementing it in any other part of the country.

Speaking at the GP conference in Liverpool, the Health Secretary said he had heard staff and patients complaining about “wasted appointments”.

He told the GP, “You don’t go through five years of medical school and five years of training to tick boxes.”

“So where there are appointments that can be cut, patients will be seen faster by specialists and GPs will have time left to do the work that only GPs can do, we will take action.”

Mr Streeting said it was “a waste of everyone’s time” for patients to be referred to a GP by someone else in the NHS, only for them to be referred to someone else in the NHS.

He also called on GPs not to “close their doors to patients” and instead “work together with us to rebuild the NHS”.

Cancer Research UK says breast cancer is the most common cancer in the UK, with around 55,500 women and 370 men diagnosed in the UK each year.

One in seven women in the UK develops breast cancer during her lifetime, and it is more common in older women.

There are a number of factors that can increase someone’s risk of breast cancer – these include their age, family history and whether they smoke or are obese.

The NHS website says breast cancer symptoms can include,

• a lump or swelling in your breast, chest, or armpit
• changes in your breast skin, such as dimples or redness
• Changes in the size or shape of one or both breasts
• Discharge from the nipple (if you are not pregnant or breastfeeding), which may contain blood
• Changes in the shape or appearance of your nipple, such as it turning inward or having a rash
• pain in your breast or armpit that doesn’t go away

NHS advice says breast lumps are very common and can be caused by other conditions, and having certain symptoms does not definitely mean you have breast cancer.

In the UK, from the age of 50, women with no obvious symptoms are invited to have a mammogram every three years to check for breast cancer, known as breast cancer. breast screening,

Professor Camilla Hawthorne, president of the Royal College of GPs, said the NHS breast screening program “has potentially saved thousands of lives”.

“As a college, we support evidence-based screening programs that are approved by the National Screening Program or NICE (healthcare watchdog),” he said.

Dr Vin Diwakar, medical director of NHS England, said the breast cancer referral pilot was the start of a plan to bring NHS services to patients through the app.

“Our ambition is to create a single patient record so that healthcare workers can see your medical history at the touch of a button and you don’t have to repeat it again and again,” he said.