Newcastle University, with development partners Genr8 Kajima Regeneration Ltd, is building a Health Innovation Neighbourhood on the site of the former Newcastle General Hospital in Newcastle’s West End

The Health Innovation Neighbourhood (HIN) is a collaborative development where housing, green spaces, healthcare and educational spaces will sit alongside our research and innovation to help people live longer, healthier, more sustainable lives.

HIN’s primary purpose is to help address the universal challenge of older, poorer, sicker, and less productive populations through a place-based, multidimensional approach to health and sustainability that addresses social and health inequalities.

There are few, if any, places where whole systems approaches to these problems can be applied, tested, and then implemented to examine their acceptability, (cost) effectiveness, and longer-term outcomes in the population. Nor so far are there places where all medical and allied health professionals and social carers have been meaningfully integrated to provide a suitable interdisciplinary training environment for health and care pre-registration students. By providing a real-world test bed for new educational approaches, research and innovation, and engagement that will make a substantive difference in people’s everyday lives, HIN provides a unique opportunity to do this at a scale that has not been achieved elsewhere in the world.

Drawing on our world-leading research and innovation, including our centres in Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) and Biomedical Research, HIN aims to reshape approaches to preventative healthcare, reduce inequalities, and serve as a model for holistic community wellbeing, influencing global health practice and neighbourhood place-making for years to come.

Phase one will include residential, later living accommodation, supported by a transport hub and an Integrated Care and Education hub, complete with up to 70 clinic rooms for pharmacy, medicine, dentistry, clinical psychology, speech and language therapy, dietetics, physiotherapy, nursing and occupational therapy allied to specialised and non-specialised community engagement and education spaces.

The announcement in the March 2023 budget of the North East Combined Authority Trailblazer Deal, which included £10 million towards a Health Innovation Zone, will enable the site to be ready for the first phase of development, bringing the realisation of the exciting plans for HIN a step closer.

Links

• Health Innovation Neighbourhood