Hospital parking fine - does everyone just pay them?

[Rebelwithallthecause]

Been a busy year of hospital stays (child in GOSH and myself in another London hospital for an operation)

Last week I was being discharged after the last operation and was told to call DH to pick me up.
The collection zone is 20 minutes and it took them just over this to get me out and now I’ve been hit with a £60 fine.

Seems so unfair these parking companies fining at hospitals when you don’t have much choice in the matter and you’re mostly governed by the timings of the NHS.

I understand it’s so people don’t take the piss.

Just needed a moan as money is tight at the moment and feeling a bit of a misery guts

No, I always question and appeal to their better side of nature if I think it’s a grey area.
My cousin got a fine fo sitting holding her dead husbands hand and out staying her welcome.
I questioned it for her and it got cancelled.
Hospitals should be free.

I used to write many a letter on behalf of patient’s parents who were issued with these. I always did my best to appeal the fine and felt (as I do now) that it should always be challenged.

Really hope you manage to appeal it OP, and that you and your child are on the road to recovery.

That’s not fair, appeal it and I hope you have a calmer time in the next few months.

I appealed direct with PALs and this was the response -

I regret to advise that the parking charge notice was issued as you husband was parked in a no waiting area for 40 minutes. Your husband could have parked in the visitors car park and waited for you by the front entrance. This would have avoided a charge due to any unforeseen delays.

There were also parking attendants available who could also have advised your husband that he could not park in the drop off zone and they could have directed him to the car park.

I regret on this occasion, I am satisfied the charge was issued correctly and that there are no grounds to cancel.

Regards

DH said the parking attendants there didn’t say anything about moving on.
But they’ve clearly made their mind up.

It’s infuriating when there really didn’t feel like we had a chance and the amount is so much.
Especially with the news of government trying to put a max limit of £40 on parking tickets

Sorry, pay it. I also had one different circumstances, I lost to PALS then went on to receive a court summons but before the date we agreed to discuss the situation, I still lost. These companies are ruthless. Pay it and forget about it.

@Dogwalks2 you’re right. It’s just not worth the stress.
I hate the injustice of it all but if a real human at a hospital can’t see that the charge is unfair then it would never go in my favour

How long have you got before the time to pay runs out?

I would email back that in fact they didn't tell you husband this and why not?

That as they've admitted they didn't do what they should you expect the fine to be squashed.

Worth a try.

I also hate this. If the money went into the nhs I'd probably be more inclined to pay. But it doesn't. It goes towards private companies who brought the land when the nhs was so cash strapped it needed to sell it off.

I'm sorry to say that it does sound like your husband is in the wrong here. The response from PALS says he was parked there for 40 mins. If it's a 20min max drop off zone then that is not a bit over. Did he leave the car unattended? As I would not class that as dropping off.
I do happen to agree that hospital parking should be free but given that it's not, you need to pay the fine.

Wasn’t unattended

They’d said I’d be discharged and for him to wait to he had the car running waiting for me as I wouldn’t have been able to walk far very easily at all

The signs said collection and drop off only but no limit on timing. (As far as I’ve googled to find the signs since as it’s just DH’s memory)

He sat with the car running for 40 minutes?! I'd have been questioning myself by that point tbh.

To be fair to DH if there was any suggestion it would take longer he wouldn’t have come yet

He was waiting around the corner in a paid for area of parking in Hampstead waiting for the call to get me from the collection area

Oh I see, sorry I thought he was coming in to collect you.

Terms and conditions for parking are often really really small signs but legally only have to be displayed somewhere in the vicinity. It probably says on there which means the fine is legally correct. As you've contacted PALS and they are standing by the fine, I'm not sure what else you can do.

I think the hospital is right here. Your DH wasn’t ‘just’ over, it was double the time allowed in the drop off bays. Once your DH knew you hadn’t been discharged when he arrived, he should have moved the car.

You do have my sympathy in having to pay, though.

It’s one of those things that I totally understand they need to ensure people don’t just park with gay abandon, but the fiend should be relative to the effective rule breaking.

£20 or £40 maybe

But £100 reduced to £60 if paid within 2 weeks does not seem comparable to the rule that had been broken

X-posted.

I didn’t realise your DH was waiting elsewhere.

It still doesn’t change my opinion, though. I had a similar situation when I was being discharged following the birth of one of my children. Was told my discharge was being prepared and it took ages. DH had to keep popping out to top up the the parking.

I know a paediatric consultant who was fined £70. His crime? He parked in the drop off zone when he was called into A&E at 3am, to resuscitate a baby. This is a hospital which, despite repeated requests, does not provide oncall staff parking...

If you are near or know someone near it might be worth another look at the signs. You can’t be expected to know 20 min maximum wait unless it is signposted.

@nocoolnamesleft that’s awful.
Far worse than my moaning!

@Lucked funnily enough managed to get someone to send me a photo of the signs on their waiting area

No mention of a time limit

It does however say no waiting

Well worth at least one more email (or, even better, hard copy letter) attaching the pic and pointing out there's no waiting time limit signposted and the attendants there didn't say anything.

If you want PM me and I'm happy to tidy up whatever you write. I used to be a lawyer.

My hospital (where I work) pulled this on me, once. Being kept waiting 2 hours for an appointment. So couldn't 'nip out' to top up, as, apart from anything, why should I?

I paid up and slapped the equivalent of the fine on my subsequent overtime claim.

It felt goooood.

Hospitals should have the system they have at my place where you pay on exit. Makes things so much easier! You put in your reg and it tells you what you owe

I think the term 'no waiting' means just that. Not sure how you felt 40 mins 'waiting' didnt apply?

indeed.

At my hospital, there's only one fine that they've overturned in recent years; a man ditched his car in front of maternity because the midwife at health centre heard the baby was in trouble when she listened in. Emergency c-section, and baby ultimately died. Initial pleas from staff and management did nothing, only the threat of going to the paper had them reverse the decision.

These companies are utterly shameless. For your own mental wellbeing, pay up and move on; you'll never win this battle.