GPs currently refer women of any age with worrying symptoms to a breast clinic. The new trial will see women contacting 111 online with worrying breast lumps referred directly to a specialist clinic through the NHS app.

Health secretary Wes Streeting told The Royal College of GPs annual conference: ‘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.'

The scheme will be evaluated before being rolled out to other parts of the country.

In response, Dr Vin Diwakar, NHS medical director for transformation, said: ‘New technology has the power to transform how we manage our healthcare – we're excited to be piloting in Somerset whether 111 online could refer women with red flag symptoms for breast cancer checks without the need to see a GP, and this is just the start of our plans to bring NHS services to patients through the app.

‘Our ambition is to create a single patient record so that health staff can see your medical history at the touch of the button without you needing to repeat it again and again, and we want to create a future where the data that the NHS holds can be used to save lives by predicting who is most at risk of developing cancer or other diseases, and taking action to prevent them.'