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!

It's odd.
'Our' hospital is in London. People who would normally never dream of driving to any other meeting (all my working appointments are accomplished by tube or bus) somehow think it necessary to drive to routine out patient appointments.

The parking is astronomical and the queues long. So a taxi is often quicker or cheaper for inpatient drop offs and pick ups.

Car mania!

I do realise that many hospitals are out of town, or less accessible by public transport and people have emergency situations. But all of these would be easier if more people used other forms of transport.

What irks me more than anything is allowing time to park fir, say a 10.20 appointment, arriving at the reception desk at 10.15 to register, and then being kept waiting (not always in a clinic that looks rushed off its feet and where the support staff have time to chat indiscreetly about a colleague or their holidays) for perhaps until 11.40 but nobody has the courtesy to keep people informed either of the delay and its anticipated length or for its reason. On top of that level disrespect the car parking is clicking away and shunts from £4 for two hours to £8 when the third hour is reached. It's just the attitude that it's fine to mess the general public about because they are just the public that irks. Sometimes it's because staff are rushed off their feet but not always and it seems too often that the overstretched card is used when the tiniest bit if helpfulness and common sense wouldn't go amiss.

so the disabled carpark is too small for an accessible vehicle?

This drives me bonkers too pudding! I understand a certain level of ignorance regarding wavs in private car parks, e.g. supermarkets, but a hospital really should know better!

And the spaces are so short! Loads of wavs, as well as being longer vehicles, require a ramp out the back... Right in to the road. Very dangerous for all concerned when getting in and out.

Bleeding taxis as well. An accessible taxi really means there's room for a lightweight chair, maybe dismantled, maybe containing a paraplegic. Anything bigger and you're screwed.

Grr. That's my rant for the day.

Perhaps you really did need to read those 4 pages, then, Draylon, because they described some very sick and distressed people, not routine appointments. Your "yet more" comment was dismissive and insensitive of accounts that included dying children, seriously ill patients and deathbeds of relatives missed.

I wonder how much money is wasted in missed and late appointments due to the parking issues? There is a parking issue and just shrugging it off won't get it solved.

Ours is bloody awful - large town and large hospital which now serves an expanded area thanks to cuts and closures. The staff are great, though - on the horrible occasions I have had to go in with one of the kids they have given us a free permit. That's once you have a space, mind.

dd2 had to have a lot of day patient operations at Bristol Children's Hospital.
They have a good system where there is a drop of bay by the door, you run in to the desk with your appointment letter, and they give you a bit of paper to put in your windscreen. Then you go and park and pay one hour's parking, and can leave your car for up to 24 hours.

The only problem is that there isn't much space in the hospital carpark that runs the scheme. But as we always had to be there by 7:30 am, it was fine, and we could park in the further away one and walk as dd was in a buggy.

On the other hand, when my mum was ill, and in for 5 weeks, I had one hour drive to the hospital, and then expensive parking. I had to take my dad in every day and it cost me an absolute fortune in petrol and parking.

That is never factored in when they talk about centres of excellence etc.

Just to be clear, the Bristol scheme was only for day surgery patients, who ALL have to be there by 7:30, which is why it works (it also is not told to patients, and not advertised, you really only get it if you are a repeat patient and someone lets you in on the secret)

There is a park and ride at Bristol, but

1. It isn't open at 7:30 am
2. You are told on your appointment letter that you are NOT ALLOWED to take your child home on public transport after day surgery and MUST be collected in a car.

The trouble with the centres of excellence cost to the public is that it is cost to people who can't afford it. Pensioners often have multiple appointments, and for my parents, the hospital for those is 40 minutes drive away. There is a bus service, for my dad to visit my mum, he would have left home at 12, and got back at about 6 pm, for a 1 hour visit, every day. And that inlcuded a 1 mile up hill walk when he got home.
Not realistic or manageable.
He needed to be there everyday because mum was so ill, and it wasn't clear at times if she would make it to the next visit if he left it 2 days.

My local hospital has reduced the car park massively and turned half of it into staff parking, I can obviously see that staff need to park too but I was circling around for 30 mins last time and overpaid massively as you never know how long it will take. It was an ENT app for my son. In the past you could give away your unused ticket to someone else, now you need to put in your registration number. The best thing would be to pay for the actual amount of time so get a ticket when you get into the car park and pay when you leave!!

Draylon I think your attitude on here regarding parking is indicative of the issues the NHS faces. There is significant problem with parking at hospitals and its a symptom of the fact that many hospitals are running beyond their capacity.

The attitude of it being cheaper for services to be centralized isn't necessarily true. It is cheaper for the NHS but probably not if you look at the total cost, ie the cost paid for by the NHS plus the patient. I am all for providing a cost efficient solution but arriving 2 hours early for an appointment just to secure parking is not efficient when at least 1 hour of that time could have been spent doing other activities, lets say for example working.

As much as it would amazing to have hospitals in walking distance to the population they serve that isn't realistic. What I have noticed is that the majority of people who attend hospital are using a car to do so, even when they live close by with public transport options available to them. This makes sense when you consider most staff either start or end shifts at hours when public transportation isn't running, sick people find public transport a challenge and public transportation gets tricky when you have more than one child (at least I find using the bus in England a major PITA with 2 DC 18 months apart) or you are in a wheelchair.

Those in planning need to accommodate for this. If they want to keep services in a centralized location, that location needs to be able to provide parking for all patients, staff and visitors. If they can't they should allow services to be moved into the community. I am sure there are facilities being underutilized or available at low cost, such as the church mentioned upthread.

centre of excellence - there is a move in the NHS to close local hospitals and put resources into larger more regional centres.

This means for example, that Bristol is the centre for children for the south west. It is a very very long way from Cornwall to Bristol, and yet, for some families, that is where they have to come for treatment.

Great in terms of medical excellence, but it does not factor in in anyway the life of those people being treated.

In particular, those families who have to have prolonged or repeated treatment find their families split over huge areas, with large distances to travel for visiting etc.

So, all the pensioners in my parents town used to get lot sof appointments and services at their local hospital, they have all been withdrawn to the bigger hospital in a town 30 minutes drive away, and so they now all have to travel there. many pensioners are reliant on public transport.

My point is that health care provision is not only about excellence, it must also factor in availability to those who need to use it.

Draylon If I'm sent an appointment at 10.20 and I turn up on time as requested and in order to respect the time of others, actually I expect to be seen within about 20-30 minutes of that appointment and that's me making allowances. All over hospitals are notices asking the public to respect hospital staff. Regularly in hospitals I hear staff being far ruder than I hear patients being rude or abrupt. I will respect the time of those in the NHS when they respect the fact that my time is as important ad theirs and after a 20 minute wait it isn't hard to say "I'm so sorry to have kept you waiting, I understand hospital visits are stressful". But no doubt you'd just think that was entitled. Well, I am sorry but patients are entitled to respect and to basic good manners because contrary to the beliefs of those who work in the NHS it isn't provided free, it is free only at the point of delivery.

I've sadly had numerous hospital appointments over the years and I'm always staggered by how many people launch into the staff about how bad the parking is. The nurse or doctor doesn't have the power to change that. Why on earth would you take it out on them?

I'm truly horrified by the stories of people who lost loved ones while waiting to park but I absolutely agree with Draylon that most of us just need to be more organised and go earlier. Most of the time our appointments are fairly routine. If you've got children to get to school you either ask a friend to take them or you move your appointment, which in many cases you can. And the whole point, surely, of taking someone to an appointment is that you can drop them off while you park, not that you turn the waiting time into a social occasion.

I thought Draylon was talking about my town but only one of our three P&Rs actually runs to the hospital. The others run to the city centre requiring a change of bus which adds a long time, and money to your journey, meaning driving wins for most people even within the city. And for those from the villages and further afield there is very little choice. The neighbouring county has just announced it is cutting the hospital shuttle.

My hospital charges £3 for two hours. I do find it annoying that I need to pay this charge when if the clinic is running on time I'd be out within twenty or thirty minutes and less money. While I don't object to paying (or the site would be full of commuters) I do object to being ripped off.

But please, please, all of you complaining that doctors are sometimes late for an appointment? Get a grip. The doctor will almost certainly be dealing with an emergency. I've been that emergency. Complaining that clinics sometimes run late? D'oh, that's because the doctor is giving the patient the time they need. You'd be grateful if you needed that extra time. In the UK we have an incredibly 'cheap' health service for the quality. If you are too self-important to wait more than twenty minutes without whinging bugger off to the private sector.

Ziggy I take it you don't have to keep a job?!?

My employer has unlimited sick in the UK however there is an expectation you get your job done. At certain times during the year we have extra long hours. During these peak times working up to 90 hours a week is common. You can then empathize that spending 4 hours at a hospital to attend an appointment when your expectation was that it would take 20-30mins is frustrating.

While in an ideal world everyone is working 35 hours a week, that is not the case these days. Also, expecting a friend to pick up or drop off your DC also doesn't really happen when you have DC who are 4 & 2. Most of my friends also have toddlers and they are working. They don't have time to pick up or drop off my kids, as much as we would all love to help each other out. I expect there are others in the UK who are in the same boat as me. Out of respect for other patients I follow the rules and never bring my DC to my hospital appointments for my pregnancy. There are other patients being told they are infertile or have lost their DC and I fully respect the rule. This does however present a challenge.

As for complaining that a doctor is running late, I think it is reasonable to expect an update. When my obn is running late someone tells me why and what they are doing about it (ie you can either wait, reschedule or a different doctor will see you). The difference is that I am in the US and when you are paying out of your own pocket and have the option to choose between different practices, I have found that the service levels are far better compared to the UK. I also don't waste time driving around the car park trying to find a spot or wait for more than 10mins to see my doctor without an update explaining why my wait will be longer. Heck sometimes they even ask if it is ok that I see a different doctor. There isn't a 'this is who will see you' approach that you have in the NHS. Yes it costs more but if you compare the NHS spending to other European countries and Canada you can see the NHS falls very much short. I think this 'value for money' spin is false in a lot of specialities, especially maternity care.

It isn't about being self-important but about being self-aware. I fully empathize with others on here who have said how they have cancelled appointments because they couldn't park despite arriving on time.

Yes I did thanks Draylon. I meant arriving at reception at 10.15 for a 10.30 appointment btw.

Receptionists can inform the waiting room and info can be put on LCD displays. Did you not read my comment about occasions when clinics don't look busy and staff are chatting. When you have kept someone waiting for an hour presumably you apologise fir keeping them waiting. No?

Draylon The NHS falls short when you compare the parking situation to other European countries such as Denmark, Sweden, Holland, France and Germany. You can also compare to Canada and see the spend in the UK is much lower. None of these other countries have perfect systems but at least you can park your car without driving around for 30+ minutes.

I will say the care in Canada that my mother and other relatives have received has been amazing. My mother drives to the hospital if she can. If not, she calls them and they arrange for a car service to take her. When she gets to the hospital parking is reimbursed in full (they stamp your card in the hospital so you can leave without having to pay) and available.

Also, your argument of not knowing healthcare is a bit far stretched. Just because you are not in the world of working for a privately held for profit corporation doesn't mean you have no idea what is going on behind closed doors, the pressures they face etc. I do think you should be able to empathize. I certainly do when I am using healthcare facilities. I have no problem waiting because I understand there is a priority system. These things happen but don't pretend for a minute that they don't impact the patients life. Keep me up to date on what the expected wait is and I don't have a problem. The issue I have is when being left waiting and waiting, given no update and then have the nurse breezily say 'Sorry we kept you waiting.' It is an empty apology, especially when my Dads appointment was at 11:30am and he wasn't seen until 1:30pm. All the nurses had been able to grab lunch on the go. We were sat there waiting and waiting not wanting to leave in case our name was called. When I asked at the front desk I was told repeatedly that it wouldn't be long now. My father is diabetic and he needs to eat on a schedule. It isn't unreasonable to assume you would be able to eat by 1pm if you arrived at 11:10am for your 11:30am appointment.

PooDogMillionaire Fri 22-Jan-16 15:20:24
I know our hospital raked in £1 million in parking fees last year. 5% was put back into patient care. The rest was used to maintain the parking systems, which someone worked out meant they spent around £2800 a day on maintenance hmm

Bet the hospital execs just sign it over to a private contractor, then they don't have to think about it any more.

They're probably getting absolutely rinsed on it!

Draylon you are missing the point. If I check in for a 10.20 appointment at 10.15 I am being punctual. If I am not seen at 10.20 but at 11.50 I have been kept waiting for 1.5 hours. I have kept nobody waiting. The letter usually says something like don't be late; it doesn't say it's reasonable to expect a delay of 1.5 hours. Not all appointments involve xrays. If staff have time to giggle and squeal about their hols, they have time to keep patients informed. NHS staff do not have the right to tell me to be on time, keep me waiting and fail to respect my time whilst expecting me to be unerringly gracious at all times. I am gracious,but it's very hard in some hospitals.