The Men's Health Education Rural Van is returning to Lake Macquarie.
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The MHERV project will be available for men, for free, at Toronto and Morisset next week.
It will be at Regatta Park, Toronto, on Wednesday and Thursday (Feb 5 and 6), from 10am to 4pm; and at Morisset Show on Saturday and Sunday, (Feb 8 and 9), from 9am to 5pm.
The purpose-built van is manned by registered nurse Rob Woolley.
He's a knockabout style of a bloke whose chats with patients are more like the conversations you might expect to have over a beer at the pub rather than a traditional consultation with a medical professional.
And it's effective.
"I think it's because it's informal," Mr Woolley said.
"It's bloke to bloke. You don't have to make an appointment. You don't have to sit in a waiting room. And the consultation takes five to 10 minutes.
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With a simple finger-prick blood test, Mr Woolley tests blood sugar and LDL cholesterol levels. In the three minutes it takes for the blood results to materialise, Mr Woolley will take the patient's blood pressure and pulse, consider a body mass index (BMI) test (if the patient wants one), and discuss any other health concerns.
"The thing is, the health problems I'm testing for have no symptoms [in the early stages]," he said. "But we can rectify some of these conditions before there are symptoms."
A spokesperson for Rotary said in the past six months the van has visited many NSW country towns.
"Of the 1882 people tested, no less than 56 per cent were referred to a GP to be assessed for identified issues and over 5 per cent were advised to see a GP immediately as they may be at serious risk usually due to high blood pressure and were unknowingly facing the risk of a heart attack," the Rotary spokesperson said.
"Don't let this happen to you. See MHERV and get checked."
