Hospital parking

[Gemini]

DDs parking experience this morning made me wonder what it's like at other hospitals.

Ours is a truly horrible multi storey that I dare not drive in myself. There are some on the ground car parks around the hospital but they are for staff only. And not enough of those. Our friend G used to park in a street some distance away.

Often the queue to get into the multi storey is so long it snakes onto the main road, causing huge delays to both hospital users and drivers wanting to pass the hospital on their way into town. It can be a one in one out situation at those busy times. The barrier won't let you in until there is a space. Then you have to find that space, which is often on the roof.

Yesterday we were lucky. We did have to park on the roof, but no waiting to get in. We have had to wait a very long time on other occasions.
Today was unfortunately one of the extremely busy times when DD was taking little E to his eye appointment. They were late for it due to this,but were seen.

It is also expensive. Patients undergoing cancer treatments get free parking. Only for the treatments, you still have to pay for consultant appointments etc.

There are bus stops nearby and I'm sure a lot of people must use the buses. We do when it's not a free parking appointment, but it takes a lot longer, and of course not everyone is able to travel by bus.
There is the free patient transfer bus, but that really does take hours. My poor dad took that once and was so cold when he got home mum was worried about him. Slow journey with a lot of open doors time. After that I always made sure I was free to drive him to his Parkinson's appointments.

I went to Selby hospital once about my knee which was a much nicer experience. Much smaller hospital and lots of easy and free parking .

There is no solution, a hospital so close to the city centre was always going to be a parking headache.

[Nanto2girls]

When we have to go to the local hospital,we always park a couple of streets away.
I know that is no good for a lot of people.
Parking is very expensive in the hospital car park. I've always said it should be free for hospital workers.
When DS1 used to live across the road from the hospital, our niece (his cousin) used to park on DS1's drive.

[Gemini]

My previous home was two minutes walk from the hospital, so we had no problem then . I walked across to be induced in labour for DD3

You would have to walk over a mile from our hospital to find any roads which aren't residents only permit parking. It's horrendous!

[Clover]

Here at least hospital parking is free IF you can find a space. I think perhaps this could be that all three hospitals aren’t anywhere near the towns for people to use for shopping parking.Also as all prescriptions are free the Welsh Health authority is more sympathetic to its users.

[Oma]

Our Hospital car parks are free for Disabled and MacMillan patients, that's if you can get a spot,
We have hundreds of parking spots plus a small multi story but it's such a big hospital it's always packed.
Worst time is afternoons around 2 pm as that's when clinics are on and visiting starts for a lot of wards.

The streets around the hospital are all resident permit holders only, I can see why because people were taking all the parking spaces up.

[Daisy]

Gem,I suppose the staff get used to patients being late because of the parking problems. I sympathise about your hospital multi storey car park. There is an underground area at our main hospital and I always try to avoid parking there because it's very dark, the parking bay lines are all but invisible and the parking spaces are very small. The area on the roof isn't any better, but you can at least work out where the lines might be. It's a nightmare! We deliberately book early morning appointments because after about 9.30 you've very little chance of finding a space, except in the Disabled car park which always has ample spaces. One parking area was reduced by about 80% when the hospital built on it. Even short appointments can quickly clock up charges of around £8, but there's a flat rate of £2 for haematology patients. Nothing seems to be free.

It's well served by buses, but not from where we live. The alternative to driving is a train and then taxi or bus.

Our local hospital where I go for blood tests has free parking and I've never had to drive round looking for a space. There are 10 and 20 minute spaces right outside the entrance as well. They don't seem to be monitored in any way, but people don't abuse these spaces because they can easily park in the car park.

Oma, it seems the bigger the hospital the bigger the parking problem.

Clover, I suppose if your hospitals were nearer to the shops there wouldn't be free parking. Do the buses run regularly as well?

[Gemini]

OH doesn't seem to be given any choice of appointment time and they vary. Blood taking at the NHS unit at the Stadium is great , so at least we can avoid the hospital for that. There is free parking in either their car park or the ones at adjoining retail park for up to four hours.

[Daisy]

Gem, my appointment times would be all over the place, but OH talks nicely to the receptionist on the day ward. We can book up to 6 appointments at a time, and he just asks for the times we want. Sometimes they aren't available, but we've always been able to change them later. The Stadium facilities sound excellent and very convenient - especially with a retail park near by.

[WeeGranny]

Addenbrooke’s hospital parking was horrendous. There were two multi storey carparks, neither particularly near the hospital and both filled up quickly. The streets around the hospital all had double yellow lines. When OH was in there, I used to get the P&R bus in. It was walkable distance so I often did that. At least it was free and you weren’t watching the time.
I remember a couple of times when he had an emergency admission paying over £20 to park.
At the hospital where he had his treatments, there were designated parking spaces for oncology but the rest of the car park was first come. There were no charges though!

[Clover]

Daisy, yes buses do run into the hospital grounds but unfortunately most of our buses are going on strike from next week until January, almost continuously they are threatening 😮I sincerely hope a settlement can be agreed for everyone’s sake as so many people rely on them for work, school etc.etc.

[Daisy]

WeeGranny, parking seems to be a major problem for hospitals - at least for patients and visitors. I think P&R is the answer for a lot of problems, but then the hospitals wouldn't get the income stream from their car parks! The phrase "turkeys don't vote for Christmas" comes to mind. Getting a £20 parking charge when you are already worried, stressed and under pressure is no joke.

Clover, and then people are asked why they use cars when they could go by bus. That is going to make life very difficult for you I should think. I hope you can get lifts if you need to go anywhere. Getting children to school is going to be difficult. My GD1 has a long journey on a school bus, but a major road has been closed for 3 weeks, and one morning it took nearly 3 hours to get to school. It's usually just over an hour. The other bus going to the same two schools took a diversion and has been on time, but GD1's driver refused to go that way! You couldn't make it up. A lot of parents took their children to school themselves, but unfortunately that wasn't an option for GD1's parents.