Healthcare clinic in Haywards Heath celebrates five years since opening just before Covid lockdown

Sam Pargeter, sports chiropractor and clinic director, said The Health Hub on Sussex Road opened on February 3, 2020, a few weeks before the first lockdown.

It offers physiotherapy, chiropractic, osteopathy, sports massage, massage and pilates. Visit www.thehealthhub.co.uk or call 01444 817851 to find out more.

Sam said he and his wife Jodie, who is a physiotherapist and co-owner, hoped to grow the business quickly in 2020.

He said: “It was all very exciting, with everything very shiny and new.”

“It was a vision of growing it and expanding it to fill the space that we'd taken on,” he said, adding that they had a team of therapists and receptionists ready to go.

Sam explained that he had previously co-owned The Heeler Centre in Hassocks, which he ran for seven years, and said Haywards Heath seemed a great place to have a clinic afterwards. Sam had lived in Haywards Heath before moving to Newick and called the town a ‘top choice’ because of its accessible location for Mid Sussex residents.

Sam said: “The whole of February felt fairly normal but then there was all this muttering about this cold or flu like thing happening.”

Jodie was also pregnant with the couple’s first son who was expected to arrive in March. Sam said: “We didn't know that a lockdown was coming but it looked this virus was going to be more significant than we first thought.”

So Sam went off work the week before lockdown to avoid becoming ill and so he could be in hospital for the birth. His son arrived on March 19 and the first lockdown was announced days later.

Sam said: “Suddenly we’re faced with a newborn child and the fact that our business had to close for (at the time) three weeks.”

He said: “It was about ten weeks before we were able to get anybody back into the practice to do any kind of work.”

He said that at this stage they could only open with restrictions and precautions in place, like PPE and staggered appointment times, as well as limited staff. Only three people, including Sam, were allowed in and services like massage were considered non-essential.

Sam said: “It was more or less having to run almost an entire year on stop-starting. If someone was exposed we had all the isolation elements to deal with.”

Sam said running the clinic became easier when they were able to test for Covid ‘proactively’, with staff testing every morning to limit disruptions. He said: “It’s a bit of a blur really and amazing how it all rolled on.”

Sam and Jodie added a few therapists during the pandemic but social distancing rules and PPE meant they could not create the warm environment that they wanted the clinic to have.

He said: “It was a very bizarre period and certainly not one I would generally recommend people to launch a business in but I’m certainly thankful to come out the other side of it.”

It was about two years until Sam and Jodie could really grow the business properly, but now, after five years, the The Health Hub has 14 therapists and five receptionists. The clinic has accumulated more than 200 five-star Google reviews too, which Sam says reflects their dedication to outstanding care. The couple are proud to have built this reputation and have added ‘a ton of services’, including women’s health physiotherapy.

Speaking about the reviews, Sam said: “There's no bigger compliment than someone recommending you to a friend and if they're willing to then put that in writing online that's even nicer.”

He said 85 per cent of their patients come from word-of-mouth.

“Anyone who gets into healthcare, you do it because you want to help people,” he added, saying his team all have the same outlook. He said: “We want to help people get better and achieve their goals, whatever they may be, whether that’s getting out of pain, whether that's returning to exercise or sport or running.”

Sam said the five year milestone feels like ‘a moment to take a deep breath and take stock of what we’ve achieved beyond surviving’. He said they are ‘filled with excitement for what the next five years brings’ and are planning to take their staff out for a meal.