Putting the ‘pub’ in public health

How do you reach a notoriously reluctant patient cohort? By bringing the consulting room to them – even if it’s at the local pub.
 
While free beer and health checks might seem odd bedfellows, they have proven to be a winning combination for Victorian GP Dr Ravin Sadhai and his Pub Clinic.
 
Since its first iteration in 2008, when a handful of men came to Dr Sadhai’s event on the promise of drinks, health checks and guest speakers, the Pub Clinic now attracts up to 200 men.
 
Meeting once a year, the event includes a health information session, with attendees hearing from different health professionals, ranging from physios and personal trainers to cardiologists and neurosurgeons.
 
On the night, the group also receives a health check from medical students, including blood pressure or sugar level checks.
 
Along the way, the concept has also attracted considerable admiration.
 
This year, Dr Sadhai was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for his outstanding service to medicine and community health in Victoria’s Bacchus Marsh region. 
 
‘Yeah, it was very nice,’ he told newsGP. ‘An acknowledgement of all the good work, for me and others as well. Very honouring, very humbling.’
 
It was during his medical training in Ireland in the 1990s that Dr Sadhai first had an inkling of the potential power of the pub.
 
He saw that his local pub in Dublin was not just a focal point for community, but a gathering place for his target audience.
 
Once he began practising back in Australia, he saw a steady procession of female patients becoming widows.
 
‘They were there with me, telling me the story of their young husbands who died, who were in their 40s and 50s and never came to the doctor and had cardiac events and other things,’ he said.


(L–R) Sports physician Dr Sachin Khullar, endocrinologist Dr Rita Upreti, Pub Clinic founder Dr Ravin Sadhai, and former AFL player Dennis Armfield at the 2024 Pub Clinic.

It’s a healthcare trend being seen nationwide, with around 78% of male patients seeing a GP in 2024, compared to 87% of female patients.
 
Male patients aged 25–34 see their GP an average of just 1.9 times a year, while women in that age group see their GP an average of 3.5 times a year.
 
And half of all deaths in males aged under 75 are potentially avoidable.
 
‘I thought, “we need to try and get these men involved in their health”, and rather than making a boring GP appointment, maybe we can bring the message across to the blokes,’ Dr Sadhai said.
 
‘Let’s get a health message over a glass of beer.’
 
Since moving to Bacchus Marsh in 2006, Dr Sadhai has immersed himself in the local community, following in the footsteps of his father, who was also a GP and ‘a man of the community’ in the town.
 
As well as working at the Bacchus Marsh Medical Centre, Dr Sadhai is a GP for the local football club and organises and emcees every Pub Clinic.
 
Having attracted several community sponsors to the event, Dr Sadhai has been able to keep the Pub Clinic free for attendees.
 
It is the same for the Ladies Lounge, the female iteration of the event that he started three years ago after he ‘kept on being asked about doing a ladies version’.
 
‘They’ve been hugely successful, but are fairly different types of nights,’ he says.
 
‘They’re a bit more sit-down and a bit more organised. The blokes will just turn up, whereas the ladies will actually book a ticket, and we have to cap the numbers.’
 
And Dr Sadhai believes the Pub Clinic is having an impact on health and wellbeing.
 
‘It’s hard to measure things like this, but I think subjectively, and in the community, we know it’s made a difference to people,’ he said.
 
‘We’ve had lots of different people talking, all volunteering their time.

‘It’s not a sit-down lecture, it’s done as a discussion. We’re very interactive.’
 
The next Pub Clinic will be held on Wednesday, 18 March at the Plough Hotel, Myrniong, from 6.30pm.
 
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