To be completely fucked off with hospital parking?

[PooDogMillionaire]

DS had a very bad crack to the head last week, I rushed him to A&E and there was nowhere to park... The only place to pull in had big red signs saying I'd be towed if I parked there, meanwhile DS is almost unconscious, pale with a bleeding head .

I've just arrived at the same hospital for my second attempt at my maternity booking in appointment only to find a 7 car long queue for the very expensive car park. Both appointments have been at 9:30 so I haven't had much time to get up here from school run and have now had to cancel both as nowhere to park.

I'm not sure what the solution is but if be scared to go into labour and not be able to find a space!

At the hospital where I live there is no car park near the maternity unit. The nearest one is a staff car park. When I was in labour we had to park miles away and walk to the hospital. I gave birth less than an hour later! Dh did offer to drop me outside the door, park and then meet me but obviously I didn't really like the idea of being left on my own while in labour.

I drove 100 miles to try to get to my mum's bedside.

She died while I was stuck in a queue in the (completely log jammed) car park.

The one thing they have right here in the US at my local hospital is valet parking for emergencies. I've used it before when DS was having breathing problems. The man running it at night is a local legend in that he won't accept tips and will yell at doctors to get on with it during the winter months when they apparently stay inside and have a couple of nurses go out with the trolley or have the porter wheel the sick patient in.

Most hospitals have doctor parking right by the entrance, staff parking where staff permit is required to get in and patient/visitor parking. It's about $10 a day and decreases to zero if your car has been in for a week or longer. The parking charges cover the cost of the paving, security etc for the parking.

I would like to see valet parking at all hospitals in the UK. Having used it I couldn't believe how wonderful it was, making life so much easier for those who are disabled or sick.

Sorry to hear that 3littlefrogs

That seems like a good idea supermum.

I do like the shuttle/park and ride idea too, would probably be a lot easier to implement in cities that already have city centre p&r systems set up.

I think a lot of our problems with local hospitals is that they cover such wide areas so taking public transport is often impractical just because it takes ages with chamging buses etc and for early appointments you might not be able to get there in time.

My DH missed 3/4 of our abnormality scan because of parking. I walked from work despite SPD because of the parking situation. Imagine receiving life changing news on your own or having a baby or falling unconscious because the parking is inadequate? I know people in this thread don't have to imagine as they've experienced it. I dropped my DM off for a few radiotherapy appointments and I nearly missed joining her for the first one because I couldn't get a space and it was only a nice man seeing me panicked and directing me to his space that meant I made it in time. It's so stressful for regular attendees be it inpatient or outpatient or visitor. It's the hardest time of your life and you stress about the appointment or you go alone because of parking. It's just unacceptable.

3littlefrogs my heart goes out to you because that's exactly why this is an awful problem which needs fixing before other families suffer like you did.

I waited outside the hospital to follow the ambulance taking my DM on her final journey (in this life) to the hospice.
I had to stop on a yello line and a traffic warden came over and told me I had to move, I was unable to speak for crying and said to please just give me a ticket, I'd already collected a couple @ £50 a go trying to get to her in a hurry.
When he saw the ambulance he didn't give me one.

Try working there, paying hundreds for a permit, and then struggling every day to get a space.

Agree with this, I spent 20 minutes driving round trying for a space on Monday afternoon while DD was in the back bleeding reasonably heavily from her face. It wasn't life threatening (otherwise I would have just ditched the car and blocked people in) but she was rear facing in the back so I couldn't check on her properly or comfort her, we were both extremely stressed and she was very upset and anxious.

And all the while I was paying to drive round looking for a non existent space as you are captured by ANPR on the way in.

When a parent was dying of terminal cancer, we were allowed to park in the free parking that Macmillan offered. I would have been beyond disgusted to have had to pay for the privilege of parking my car each day during that experience. God forbid that it would make it harder for anyone to physically spend that time with a dying relative.

Threelittlefrogs, the same thing happened to me. My dad died while I was trying to find somewhere to park. We had received a call from the hospital to come quickly and I had dropped my mum off. I was in a panic and in the end I double parked and legged it into the war. At least my mum was there when he died.

I just came on to post exactly what Want did. I am also in the US and all our local hospitals have valet parking. Additionally, there is street parking where we are, some paid and some free, the regular car park (where you get your parking validated by whichever department you go in to see) which is a max of $2 or something and when I was in labour with DC2, we were told to park in an ambulance bay at the ER and leave a note in the window. Ok, so in theory there is more space in the US but I'm in a big city and there isn't so much. It's very well organised compared with most of the hospitals I've been to in the UK.

I'm a carer for my severely disabled child and one of the reasons I gave up work (2 years ago) was because 1 appointment took half a day or further away, a while day and I don't think people get that. Needing to park and waiting to park is just one element of it

We have 3 big hospitals in the local town. I unfortunately have had to visit all 3 frequently. They're each awful for parking in a different way. Hospital 1: pay in advance (guess in advance how much you want them to rip you off by - appointments can take 5 min or 4 hours for the same clinic), 2 rows of non-staff car parking spaces for the entire hospital (it was finished about 5 years ago; cr*p planning IMO), considering this is specialist orthopedic hospital, there are few dropped curbs and a slope and bumpy surface.

Hospital 2: cancer & haematology. 3 car parks (one has about 4 spaces!) for the most mahoosive hospital, each row of parking has only one entry/exit (so if you want to hover you either get stuck in a row or block the entire car park by waiting at the end, or get totally stuck as there isn't anywhere to turn round). Really brilliant when you're driving round for 45 minutes before an appt (BC scare, so waaaay stressful) and some muppet is sitting in his car smoking - I was very restrained when I asked him to swap places with me! Have also followed people back to their car from the ticket machine having live-parked in a 5 minute bay, having already driven for 45 minutes looking for a space).
Hospital 3: Maternity & A&E. Multiple car parks, causes tail backs to main road when full. Tells you there is a space when in fact it's only a disabled space so fineable and you're then stuck. Super small spaces. About 30 spaces for entire children's hospital. Maternity appts ludicrous as shares car park for main hospital. A&E even more fun- having dodged the regular ambulances there is a single lane access to a small area for drop off, no waiting. I've had a badly injured (poss spinal) child where I had to dump the car in this area to go in and get a nurse, then asked a lovely lovely policeman to look after my car so I could take my child in after they refused to come out (after falling off onto concrete on back). They then asked me to leave my 5yr old kid in a bed on his own so I could repark the car: I told them where to go. Once husband had arrived and reparked car (I still love that policeman for looking after my car for 2hrs!) I then had to carry my asleep son back to car park in PJs in February about 1/2 a mile at 3am!). Have also had car stuck in car park after emergency admission of a child who then stayed 5 days; thankfully they gave me a pass to get out or I would have removed the barrier myself!!!!
I think my record ref costs was £25 in one week. Can't P&R as I did it once, took 2 hrs each way (only 1 bus an hour from house), 2 changes of bus. Taxi cost £45 one way.

/end rant!

I'm in Wales so no charge to park, but it doesn't make it any easier to park, just cheaper. Ours opened a park and ride last year and it's bloody brilliant, the bus is free and runs every 15 minutes. You can use it if you are a visitor, clinics or office staff as it is in operation from 7am to 7pm, no good for staff on the wards, we work 7.30 to 8.30pm and would have to walk my feet are already about to fall off the walk would finish me off. But If I have to go for anything other than work I use it.

Ps @3littlefrogs I am so sorry to hear your story :( That's awful :(

I remember taking my dying Dad to Colchester hospital and the car park being rammed. I drooped him off at the ward and then had to leave to park. Eventually I just slung it on a pavement because I was so desperate. 30 Minutes later, the nurses are asking us for decisions about Dad's end of life care. He passed away, thankfully at home, 24 hours later. The parking problem made an awful night into an horrific one.

I'm in Wales so no charge to park
Some are paid, UHW Cardiff has always charged. It can get busy at peak times and if you need to get in for around 10am or 2pm it's worth setting off in plenty of time. In all our years of maternity, operations and regular clinic appts though the only issue we ever had was not being able to get out rather than in.

DS and I were nipping home between visiting hours a couple of days after DH had a life-threatening event and the queue to get out wasn't going anywhere. Having travelled one floor in 20 mins we gave up, re-parked and went back in early. Luckily the ward was very understanding.

Hospital parking really winds me up. So badly managed. In my local hospital there was a car park about 400 metres from the hospital. It was always empty and I loved parking there. Unfortunately it has now been converted to staff parking and I have to join the huge queue to park.

But what I don't understand is why there is staff parking. Fair enough for staff moving around sites, but if you are working in a hospital why is there staff parking? I've worked for 30 years and never had a staff car park. I don't get it.

Probably because there's no or very little parking in the streets round the hospital and public transport to get in for a 7am shift or home after a late shift is non-existant.

If you want your staff to be in work and not driving round looking for somewhere to park then it helps to provide parking for them.

I was at a hospital earlier for an appointment. I was driving around for 10 minutes trying to find a space. Luckily I left home taking into account the time for parking.

casinocat without staff parking how do you propose I work weekend nights? Bank holidays? Christmas day? Should I park a mile away on nearest road without parking restrictions and walk alone to my car at the end of a twilight shift that ends at 3am? Plus, not all staff live near enough to the hospital to use public transport.

Some of these stories are just so sad.

It's all a huge scam, another form of the nhs being privatised and companies making huge profits out of patients and staff.

Our hospitals parking was privatised a few years ago and the prices rocketed. Doubled for staff straight away and is still creeping up and up.

I recently had to take DD to A&E in the middle of night, all ok , just something that had to be checked as a precaution. On leaving at 4am I went to pay at the machine by card and both machines had signs to say card payments not working. So I had to run across the site (huge) in the pissing rain to get to the other machines only to find they had same signs on them. Then had to find a cash machine so I could finally pay and get out of the bloody barriers. You would think if these companies are making so much money they could at least make sure people can pay the fuckers without it causing even more stress.

go on blame the staff for the crap hospital parking...as if they havent got enough to do.....how about leaving a bit earlier or even getting lift....no one is as important as you....forget the other hundreds of people who have appointments in the hospital at the same time as you with other consultants, or the emergencys, or the doctors and nurses who also have to pay....me me me me me.....its a hospital car park....its busy...always will be.....its not gonna b e any diffenent because 'YOUR'appt is that day.....struth!