Organisations join forces to offer GP appointments and sports services in Eastbourne

South Downs Health & Care (SDHC) and Wave Active purchased the Hillbrow Centre – formerly owned by University of Brighton – in Meads last year (2024).

Now, in what is believed to be ‘a first for the UK’, the organisations will combine their services to provide GP appointments and a sports centre under the same roof.

Once fully operational at Hillbrow, SDHC said it hopes to initially provide 224 urgent NHS appointments each week, along with a new GP training hub.

Dr. Nick Harvey, GP and CEO at South Downs Health and Care, said: “This is undoubtedly a ground-breaking moment in the delivery of healthcare and wellbeing services in the community.

"In what we believe is a first for the UK, we are integrating our services, including urgent treatment with physical activity-focused health and wellbeing provision, all within a modern multi-functional complex.

“Our partnership with Wave Active brings the government’s hospital to community agenda to life, where prevention and treatment are delivered within a neighbourhood health centre, as well as training the next generation of GPs.”

Wave Active is a charity and social enterprise that operates sports and leisure centres on behalf of Lewes District Council and Eastbourne Borough Council.

The organisation supports patients referred by local GP practices and Eastbourne District General Hospital.

Duncan Kerr, Chief Executive of Wave Active, said: “Our partnership with SDHC is a huge step forward and the fulfilment of a vision that we share for enabling fully integrated healthcare and wellbeing services in the heart of our community.

“To know that we will soon be running our extensive programme of fitness and wellbeing classes at Hillbrow, alongside GPs training and treating patients in the new consulting rooms, is very exciting and presents a fantastic opportunity to make a real difference to health outcomes for Eastbourne residents.”

From April 22, in addition to the urgent appointments at Hillbrow Health & Wellbeing, visitors will have access to vaccinations, phlebotomy and weight loss clinics, memory assessment services, and physiotherapy.

There are also plans to add an NHS consultant ENT clinic to reduce waiting times later in the year, in addition to introducing imaging facilities, specialised outpatient clinics and NHS Musculo-skeletal clinics.

James Ramsay, Chief Medical Officer at NHS Sussex, added: “People across Eastbourne are going to benefit from this partnership, bringing the NHS and wellbeing together under one roof, close to where people live and making it as easy as possible to access support.

“Our ambition for health and care, aligned to the Government’s plan, is for more care to be offered within our communities, joined up across health and care, and this is a brilliant example of how this will work – focused on the needs of the local population.

“To be able to offer local services to support people’s wellbeing, provide NHS care, and have the opportunity to bring more clinics into the community is a great opportunity and we look forward to working with South Downs Health and Care and Wave Active to make a difference to the health and care of people in Eastbourne.”