Construction work is underway on the Newhaven Health Hub, a co-location project combining fitness and medical facilities, being led by Lewes District and Eastbourne Borough Councils in the UK.

Set to open in the second half of 2026, the multi-million pound regeneration initiative has three elements. The Quayside Medical Practice and Chapel Street Surgery will be rehomed, with improved facilities, and linked to the Seahaven Swim and Fitness leisure centre.

The leisure centre will be extended to create a new gym and studios, including an Innerva studio. There will also be a cafe and reception area next to a new, shared entrance foyer and the current swimming pool building will be refurbished.

Wave Active – a charitable trust which runs 15 facilities in the area – will operate the leisure element. It is best known for its groundbreaking Hillbrow Health and Wellbeing Centre – a facility which has prevention at the fore and is co-owned with South Downs Health and Care – a social enterprise owned by a number of doctors' practices.

Formed 18 months ago, this partnership pre-empted the government’s 10 Year Health Plan by creating a community health hub, delivering on the three new NHS targets of moving from hospital to community; analogue to digital and treatment to prevention.

Wave Active CEO, Duncan Kerr told HCM: “Newhaven Health Hub is a genuine collaboration between Lewes District Council, Wave Active and Quayside Medical Practice and Chapel Street GP Surgery to source a solution as part of the broader regeneration of Newhaven.

“As part of that commitment to regeneration, there was a real opportunity to invest in the provision of modern, state of the art facilities and a new working partnership to support the improvement of the health of the community.”

Wave Active employs a team of specialist health practitioners and a health coach to provide supportive services for those living with health conditions, injury or illness, as well as to support primary health care partners to lead more active lives.

“We know from our current approach in other centres that bringing people together supports the ‘not so obvious’ health conditions of loneliness and isolation,” says Kerr.

As Hillbrow approaches its first anniversary, the lessons learned in integrating primary health care services and leisure professionals under one roof, as well as creating a two-way pathway between prevention, rehabilitation and treatment, will be applied at Newhaven.

“The ambition, for me, is to change the way clinical and leisure professionals work together on a daily basis to improve the health of the local neighbourhood,” says Kerr. “This isn’t about us trying to be the National Health Service, this is about recognising and committing, sometimes at risk, to fulfilling the role that we can and should play to improve neighbourhood health.

“The 10-Year Plan gives insight as to what the new landscape will look like and I hope we can build on the relationships we've already established across public health to support positive health impact. We're open to working across geographical areas to bring relevant and appropriate services and partners together to support positive neighbourhood health impact.”

Coming down the tracks will be a new form of membership aligned to the integrated model and new ways of driving reinvestment into the wider, public health area.