Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 42 total)
  • parking meters at hospitals…………..
  • ton
    Full Member

    my mum had a heart attack yesterday, been to the hospital tonight.
    got there, in a bit of a fluster, stress head on.
    **** parking meters everywhere.
    £50 fine if you do not get a ticket.
    the parking is the only space available even if you are ther in a emergangy.
    WTF is happening when you cannot go to the hospital and park without paying.

    druidh
    Free Member

    Terrible eh? You should move to a country where that’s not allowed*





    * with 1 exception

    cynic-al
    Free Member

    boils my piss also.

    thats PFI for you.

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    gusamc
    Free Member

    instead of just subsidising them……….

    Vortexracing
    Full Member

    The whole country has gone tits up, thats what. Hope your mum is OK Tony.

    £350 billion on the merchant bankers but can’t offer free parking at hospitals.

    The wheels have really fallen off.

    My mate’s wife has had a brain tuma for 15 years with 4 ops, can’t even imagine the money he has had to dish out.

    Harry_the_Spider
    Full Member

    Utter arse isn’t it?

    Rushed the missus there when she was in labour, then had to run back out to get a **** parking ticket.

    I just hope that the money gets spent in the hosptal.

    ton
    Full Member

    i do not mind paying at all, i just think in a emergancy you should be given a bit of breathing space.

    cynic-al , whats pfi

    Stoner
    Free Member

    It is a pain.

    For those visiting long term in patients however there’s usually a fee waiver. Stoner Jr was born early and spent his firt month in neo-natal ICU. We were obvioulsy up at our local PFI hospital everyday for long hours, fortunately we were given free parking otherwise it could easily have cost £100 a week.

    Sorry to hear about your mum ton. Hope it was only a minor one.

    scuttler
    Full Member

    FWIW Huddersfield Royal Infirmary takes a very relaxed view to pay and display. I would imagine this is a deliberate policy but I’ve no proof of that. I was parked in a disabled space for six hours with a hastily scrawled ‘in labour’ note and on plenty of other occasions have paid for 2 hours and stayed for 6. Still annoying that they charge at all but nice to see the parking nazis seem to be kept away.

    midlifecrashes
    Full Member

    Bad news Ton, hope she’ll be all right. My dad was in hosp all through Christmas and new year waiting for a pacemaker, I was there a lot. Some hospitals have a season ticket you can buy, usually about a months worth, ask at the reception next time you’re up, saved me about forty quid at James Cook in M’boro.

    brack
    Free Member

    Q. Is the hosp in the centre of town?

    If so then that’s half the problem……people parking there simply to be nearer to the centre of town. I totally agree though it is way out of line charging extortionate rates to genuinely ill patients/ relatives.

    Tell you what also really p’s me off.

    Pay and display machines that don’t give change.

    1hr 70p
    2hrs £1.65 and a friggin half

    skidartist
    Free Member

    It cuts both ways though – if the parking is free do you think theres going to be a space available when you need it? The one near me in glasgow became free recently as part of the new legislation. It took a while, but now local residents and workies have cottoned on and now its full day and night regardless of visiting hours. I’m not mad keen on the notion of carparks being charged for in hospitals, but I’m less keen not being able to park at all.

    druidh
    Free Member

    Other organisations manage free car parking with a system of barriers and tokens or “pre-wiped” tickets.

    rOcKeTdOg
    Full Member

    i work in hospital, if it’s an emergency and you don’t buy a ticket people have a word afterwards or when they get a chance with the guys who man the car park booth,usually sorted with a ‘pay now’ or a free pass out, we’re not PFI btw…yet

    cynic-al
    Free Member

    PFI

    A way of getting private investment in to hospitals etc. Thing is the private investors want a return, so you pay £££ for your parking. A local PFI hospital has created huge rows with staff parking in local estates etc.

    Vortexracing
    Full Member

    PFI

    I wondered what it was, now it’s clear, it’s another way of ‘selling off’ services.

    andywhit
    Free Member

    Hope your mum is OK ton.

    GrahamS
    Full Member

    Yep, Mrs has to pay for parking at the hospital where she works. Unfortunately public transport isn’t feasible when she is on shifts. She sometimes has to park a fair distance away, which leaves her walking alone across a park on her own, late at night. Pisses me right off!

    druidh
    Free Member

    Hmm – lots of folk have to pay to park at work though.

    ton
    Full Member

    mum had a aortic dissection about 3 months ago.
    she has been fine since she had it repaired.
    but it turns out she had amild heart attack 2 weeks ago and told no one.
    she then had a similar attack yesterday am.
    i was out most of the day and my sister finally got in touch with me last night.
    been tonight and she seems ok.
    having some die put in tomorrow, to see what show up.
    so hopefully she will be ok.

    robdob
    Free Member

    Scuttler, I live not far from the HRI, you live in Huddersfield?

    As for the parking, most hospitals have small car parks as they are very old, even 30 years old would mean they wouldn’t have planned for as many cars as there is on the road nowadays. So there has to be some sort of control or else no-one would be able to park in them, pregnant wife or not!! HRI seems to do it well from Scuttler’s report it seems.

    rOcKeTdOg
    Full Member

    Hmm – lots of folk have to pay to park at work though.

    this is true, they take parking fee monthly directly from wages at my Trust

    project
    Free Member

    Ton , hope your mums ok, and you as well, a nasty shock, her being taken ill, write a letter to the chief exec and also to the ones who own the car park or run it, expalain the problem, or visit the chief execs office at the hospital, and put your point across, if you get no sence theres always thelocal papeers and media as well as the Dept for ill health.

    aracer
    Free Member

    Stoner – Member
    For those visiting long term in patients however there’s usually a fee waiver. Stoner Jr was born early and spent his firt month in neo-natal ICU. We were obvioulsy up at our local PFI hospital everyday for long hours, fortunately we were given free parking otherwise it could easily have cost £100 a week.

    I presume it’s the same one aracer jr was born in – in which case, despite the fact they do charge (a lot) for parking, they do it the right way, where you pay on the way out when you should be less stressed. Meanwhile, if you’re rushing in with a woman in labour it does seem to be acceptable to park in a (free, as it’s not within the barriered bit) short term bay right by the door for a significant period until you get sorted.

    djglover
    Free Member

    Hope your mums OK.

    When I take my twins for seperate outpatients appointments at Chelsea I have to drive as the pram wont go on the tube or bus and pay £5 an hour parking and £8 congestion charge, costs a bloody fortune 😡

    However, when they were in ICU we got a free parking pass.

    dave_rudabar
    Free Member

    Was at Taunton’s hospital (Musgrove Park) today, they’ve a big-a$$ new multi-storey there. Was £7.20 for 4hours+, but there were plenty of spaces available onsite.
    Yeovil hospital is crud for parking, tiny little car park and high charges to deter town centre workers from using it. 🙁 If you don’t get there early you’re screwed and there’s no other parking in the immediate vicinity.

    ernie_lynch
    Free Member

    Yeah, the parking situation in hospitals is shite and I could get into a rant about it, but sod that ton – hope your mum makes a speedy recovery mate.

    JulianA
    Free Member

    Hope all goes well for you, Ton!

    Basingstoke has improved in the last 3 years as they have gone from ‘pay on entry’ to ‘pay on exit’, as I found out last week when MrsJA had to go in for a couple of days. A small but significant change).

    What got me was the visiting hours: 2-3 and 6:30-7:30 – a pain for me living 8 miles away but rubbish for people living a long way away!

    Do the ward sisters have control over when you can see your loved ones? I think so! Visiting hours vary from hospital to hospital for the same type of ward, as well (I have checked this, by the way, as my sister-in-law works in Southampton General)

    sturmey
    Free Member

    Ton please insist on an angiogram for your mum not just a treadmill test. My Dad died 12 months ago and I believe if they had done this after his first attack the second would not have happened. Get well soon.

    ton
    Full Member

    thanks for the concern guys… 😀
    she is having a stent??? in today. she seems fine.

    scruff
    Free Member

    Ton, there may be a long stay permit, ours is around £15 per week. The Ward staff will probably need to arrange this with the car park staff for you.

    Long term frequent visitors- (Dialysis etc) may get free parking.

    noteeth
    Free Member

    Sorry to hear that, Ton. Hope she feels better soon.

    Don’t get me started on PFI… 👿 squared.

    (*see also the nonsense that is Patientline)

    BigButSlimmerBloke
    Free Member

    I just hope that the money gets spent in the hosptal.

    LOL at that – I work in a hospital and car parks are PFI. They were handed over to the private sector AT NO COST to the company who run them and keep the profits. The company takes about £2.2 Million a year at an estimated cost to run the car parks of £0.5 million. None of the profit goes to the NHS.
    But, much as I resent being stiffed £25 a month to park my car at work, especially in summer when I’m as likely to cycle in as I am to drive in, there are a range of things to consider. The car parks need to be maintained and kept secure. Prior to the PFI deal, several people were attacked in the car parks at night. The parking fees have installed lighting, CCTV and pay for security guys. Without making people pay, these services would be paid for from th healthcare budget.
    Also, it’s a large hospital, so bus services are pretty good especially into town. Free car parking would make it a giant nearly free park and ride for the town centre.
    It would be more palatable if the charges paid for the services and there was no profit, or if any profit went into the hospital, toys for the kids wards, that sort of thing, rather than subsidising the direct care of patients (that’s a dangerous route to go down). As an employee of the hospital, I accept that if I worked in the town, I’d have to pay to park, so I can’t really complain about parking at my place of work. Similarly, people attending OP clinics are using a service, I can’t see why they should be complaining (get the bus if you have a problem), but emergency cases, and people with long term conditions (eg regular dialysis) or the families of long term stay patients need to be treated as special cases, possibly with a permit system which wouldn’t be to difficult to arrange. Hospital for many people is stressful enough, dealing with finding change for a fekkin parking meter or getting a parking ticket is just one more thing they don’t need

    Sorry, that went on longer than I meant it to.

    Ton – all the best to your ma.

    owenfackrell
    Free Member

    JulianA – Member
    What got me was the visiting hours: 2-3 and 6:30-7:30 – a pain for me living 8 miles away but rubbish for people living a long way away!

    Do the ward sisters have control over when you can see your loved ones? I think so! Visiting hours vary from hospital to hospital for the same type of ward, as well (I have checked this, by the way, as my sister-in-law works in Southampton General)

    I was going to sya that they are longer here at soton but you sort of bet me to it.
    Our car parks are pay on exit for visitors, staff pay out of thier wages. the biggest problem here is that the site is 100 years old and like a loyt of big hospitals there is no room to expand out wards whilst the hospital grows in size and the amount of services it offers. there are discont schemes here for long term visitors as well as free for ICU’s extra.
    There is plans to expand the amount of public parking but it would involve closing the car park so its a bit of a catch 22 situation.
    the reason they charge here is to stop people park and going in to Town etc.

    JulianA
    Free Member

    It’s an awful long walk into town from Southampton General… Admittedly not so far from the RSH though.

    Apparently the restricted hours are for ‘infection control’ purposes. Neuro ward in the General was 8am to 8pm – and the same ward as I am referring to in Basingstoke is 3 – 5 and 6:30 – 7:30 in Southampton. All very disjointed…

    I’d like to know what the visiting hours are in countries with much lower hospital-acquired infection rates are.

    owenfackrell
    Free Member

    JulianA – Member
    It’s an awful long walk into town from Southampton General..

    Would stop people if they could get the bus for not much and shierly is not far.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    My mate’s wife has had a brain tuma for 15 years with 4 ops, can’t even imagine the money he has had to dish out.

    That sort of thing is truly heartbreaking and I do sympathise with those concerned. However (and this goes for everyone on this thread) do try and be thankful for the fact that you’re not having to pay directly for the actual care as well. It costs a shedload more than the parking…

    richc
    Free Member

    anyone else find it disgusting that people are so selfish that they use up hospital parking to get cheap/close access to the shops?!?

    Whilst I agree PFI’s are shit, but ultimately its selfish/lazy/stupid people that forced some of the hospitals to have to do this with regard to parking/facilities.

    Hope your mum get better soon ton, like the others said if she is in for a while speak to the ward sister and she/he/they can sort out cheap parking passes.

    mudshark
    Free Member

    Surely if there are more people wanting to park than there are spaces then charging for parking is desired? Increase the price to the point that demand meets supply and all is well. A downside is that some of those that can’t afford to pay might die but you can’t have everything can you?

    AndyP
    Free Member

    Taxis are ace

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