Man MOT goes national

02/12/14 . News

Men in England can now contact a GP 24/7.

The Man MOT service from the Men’s Health Forum, which launches nationally this month, enables men to contact an NHS GP at anytime, from anyplace, using a mobile, tablet or laptop.

Two types of contact are offered. There is live text chat with a health professional on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday (7-10pm) and a full email service at all other times. The full schedule is:

  • Monday and Thursday: text chat with a GP 7-10pm
  • Wednesday Workshop: text chat on a specific topic with an expert 7-10pm.
  • Email service at all other times: GP to reply within 72 hours.

You can access the service here.

Wednesday workshops change every month. The service begins in December 2014 with Dr Luke Sullivan from Men’s Minds Matter taking questions on beating stress and the winter blues.

Tracy Herd, who now manages Man MOT for the Men's Health Forum charity said: ‘Man MOT offers what men have told us they want - a free, confidential online health information and advice service. No appointment necessary. We have pioneered and developed it with our partners in Haringey and now it’s available across England.

‘Two key challenges for the NHS right now concern the difficulties around getting a GP appointment and the inappropriate use of A&E. Man MOT helps address both those challenges in a way that enables men to get the appropriate health information more easily not less. It’s a win-win for both service-provider and men.’

Using a Department of Health innovation grant, Man MOT was developed in the London Borough of Haringey with local men in partnership with the Council’s public health team and the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation. The Men’s Health Forum will continue to work with the borough to develop and improve the service.

Councillor Peter Morton, Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing on Haringey said: ‘With research showing that men are far more reluctant to visit their GP than women, it is important we do everything possible to encourage men to seek medical advice and support when necessary. Schemes like the Man MOT service help achieve this by offering men quick, easy and anonymous access to GPs and other health professionals which can have a profound impact in reducing the numbers of preventable deaths.’

The Men’s Health Forum need your support

It’s tough for men to ask for help but if you don’t ask when you need it, things generally only get worse. So we’re asking.

In the UK, one man in five dies before the age of 65. If we had health policies and services that better reflected the needs of the whole population, it might not be like that. But it is. Policies and services and indeed men have been like this for a long time and they don’t change overnight just because we want them to.

It’s true that the UK’s men don’t have it bad compared to some other groups. We’re not asking you to ‘feel sorry’ for men or put them first. We’re talking here about something more complicated, something that falls outside the traditional charity fund-raising model of ‘doing something for those less fortunate than ourselves’. That model raises money but it seldom changes much. We’re talking about changing the way we look at the world. There is nothing inevitable about premature male death. Services accessible to all, a population better informed. These would benefit everyone - rich and poor, young and old, male and female - and that’s what we’re campaigning for.

We’re not asking you to look at images of pity, we’re just asking you to look around at the society you live in, at the men you know and at the families with sons, fathers and grandads missing.

Here’s our fund-raising page - please chip in if you can.

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