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AIBU?

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Original poster

Hospital parking

55 replies

Shopkinsdoll · 30/11/2018 14:38

So been waiting since March for this hospital appointment for my two children. Left nice and early for app. Got to hospital, not one space. I must have circled round for at least half an hour. At last I spotted a car just about to leave, so I put my indicators on that I was going in when the parked car left. Suddenly this women appeared waving. I waved back, but realised she was waving at the bmw driver behind me. She walked up to me saying this was her friends space as she had been looking for ages. I said no it’s mine and I’m late for an appointment. Then I drove in. She then took a picture of my car?? I saw the space and went for it. Since when do people stand in spaces hogging it for people??

OP posts:
Brainfogmcfogface · 30/11/2018 20:20

I do it all the time. Sometimes it's the only way to get a space. If a car parked outside our house moves, one of us will stand in it while the other one goes to fetch the car from whichever far-flung road we've had to park it in. If we didn't do that, by the time we had fetched the car, the space would have gone. I can't see a problem with it. It's the first person to physically claim a space that gets it, not the nearest car.

😆WTAF?! Erm no it’s a car parking space ergo first car there gets it, if you were standing in a space I wanted I’d bloody block it and not move! CF!

Sugarplumfairy65 · 30/11/2018 20:27

I do it all the time. Sometimes it's the only way to get a space. If a car parked outside our house moves, one of us will stand in it while the other one goes to fetch the car from whichever far-flung road we've had to park it in. If we didn't do that, by the time we had fetched the car, the space would have gone. I can't see a problem with it. It's the first person to physically claim a space that gets it, not the nearest car.

There is no way I would give up a parking space to someone who did this. I would miss my hospital appointment rather than let someone stand in a space to stop me parking

PermanentlyFrizzyHairBall · 30/11/2018 20:31

You're not allowed to save car spaces so she was being ridiculous taking a picture of your car.

@Time40

I don't necessarily think what you do is wrong BUT I would hope if someone else was waiting to come in to the "saved" space as OP was you wouldn't insist that it was somehow "your" space.

redsummershoes · 30/11/2018 20:35

our local hospital doesn't have parking at all. only a drop off zone.

DannyWallace · 30/11/2018 21:01

Hahaha someone did this to me once.
I started to drive in and she stood in the space, refusing to move.
I stayed in my car with the heating on (it was mid winter and freezing!) she stood there in a T-shirt for about 15 minutes before security saw her and told her to move Smile

Time40 · 30/11/2018 21:02

I don't necessarily think what you do is wrong BUT I would hope if someone else was waiting to come in to the "saved" space as OP was you wouldn't insist that it was somehow "your" space

It depends on the situation, doesn't it? It would be massive CF-ery to rush across and stand in a space when there was already someone waiting. But if you claimed a space by standing in it when there was no one waiting, and then someone drove up afterwards ... tough luck to them, because you were standing there first. This sort of space-claiming only makes sense in situations where, if you don't do it, you are going to have a huge problem. We do it outside our own house, when the space there become free, because if we went to get the car from the far-flung place where we had been forced to leave it and someone had taken the space when we got back, there would be no where to put the car and it would cause massive inconvenience. It's the same sort of thinking as putting the bins in a space when you desperately need that space for a removal van or something.

woodhill · 30/11/2018 21:15

No way can you stand in a space in a public car park. It's the driver in the car that is waiting not some one in the passenger seat who gets out and runs across the car park.

Time40 · 30/11/2018 22:00

Exactly, woodhill. That's why I said doing so would be massive CF-ery.

woodhill · 30/11/2018 22:08

Quite dangerous too.

woodhill · 30/11/2018 22:09

I understand it's different outside your home if you have no drive

snitzelvoncrumb · 30/11/2018 22:16

When I was pregnant, I was told at a hospital appointment to have a note in your car window saying sorry wife in labour, so you don't get a parking fine. There were never any parks.

AlpacaLypse · 30/11/2018 22:19

All of this is just confirming how upsetting the parking chaos is. About six years ago I had to scoop our mum up and rush her to local ish big hospital. My brother, her son, had been admitted. He was dying. We couldn't find a space anywhere, including outside A&E. Yes I would have paid a big fine to dump car there but there really wasn't any gap big enough.

He died before anyone got there.

randomchap · 30/11/2018 22:24

I work in a city centre hospital, we have a car park for patients but it's normally not full. Each year during the run up to Christmas we have to run stories in the local press asking people not to park there to go shopping. Every year it's always full to bursting in December.

flowery · 30/11/2018 23:33

”It's the first person to physically claim a space that gets it, not the nearest car.”

It really really isn’t.

KnightlyMyMan · 30/11/2018 23:49

At our local shopping outlet all parking curtosey goes out of the window and it turns into the Wild West. I’m talking space stealing - 3 cars sat indicating for the same spot (all from different angles)...etc.

Once (after having 4 spaces stolen from me) I spotted a colleague of mine in her land rover leaving a spot. I waved and she indicated for me to take her spot. A guy was sat indicating already but she reversed out in a way that blocked him and I drove straight in. She was so slow setting off that I was out the car and in the shop before she drove away. I felt bad but by that point I’d given up! No one else seemed to have any manners and I was getting nowhere! Think this happens ALOT now a days! As long as it’s not a child or disabled bay there’s a danger in being too polite- people just aren’t anymore!

Also DP is a doctor and if you think NHS visitor parking is bad you should try being staff. They pay a hefty monthly parking fee which (and I quote) ‘only guarantees them entry to the staff car park- not a space!’ Luckily he is in very early but my BF who is a nurse can spend an hour trying to park in peak times.

🤔 I’m no genius but I feel like doctors and nurses running 30 mins late due to inability to park ...could have negative consequences!

Howhot · 30/11/2018 23:59

Time40 that doesn't make the space yours. Surely if a car pulls up and indicates, they would be blocking any chance of whoever you're saving the space for from pulling in anyway. Confused

noenergy · 01/12/2018 01:12

Parking at the hospital where I am is also quite bad, you could be waiting anywhere up to an hour. But you wait to get into the car park behind the barrier, you will not be let in if the car park is full. So this sort of thing can't happen. I thought most hospital car parks were like this that when if a car leaves then the barrier opens to let a car in and it gives you the ticket.

SnuggyBuggy · 01/12/2018 06:22

The worst incident I remember was a member of our team being punched in the face by the partner of a HCA in a parking rage incident.

That hospital also had a system where staff were told to block people in and leave a number for them to call and get them to move the car which naturally made for a stressful working day. They usually had to get a colleague to come out with them as the callers could get very intimidating.

pompomcat · 01/12/2018 06:32

I'm so sorry @AlpacaLypse Thanks

FishesThatFly · 01/12/2018 06:50

KnightlyMyMan - same at my Trust too. All staff spaces are gone by 8.45am so if l start at 10am l am always over an hour early for my shift. Any later then l will be late for my shift and we were told we'd have our annual leave docked or have to work the hours owed.

ForalltheSaints · 01/12/2018 07:45

Too many hospitals have been moved out of town, it seems more for the convenience of the company building them and/or the local private medical facility. Buses cannot cater for all the varying destinations from the hospital, and if you are ill perhaps you do not want to be with strangers on your journey. If there were no charges and the hospital was near any workplace or other facility, it would be used as a place for those who work or visit there.

The only long-term option other than charging or a reservation system is to never build any new hospitals other than in town centres, or on land next to rail or bus stations. Unlikely to happen.

woodhill · 01/12/2018 08:04

Lol

It's the first person to physically claim a space that gets it, not the nearest car.”

It's not the Wild West of America with a land grab.

The clue is in the name - car park not passenger standing In space.

SnuggyBuggy · 01/12/2018 08:33

@Woodhill I can assure you that hospital car parks are very much the Wild West

IHaveBrilloHair · 01/12/2018 08:37

Hospital car parks scare the shit out of me.
Just a couple of weeks back I accidentally went the wrong way in a one way system in a multi storey, and had to do a 109 point turn to get out whilst some guy was telling at me.
I ended up parking in the staff car park and hoping no one noticed.

SomethingNastyInTheBallPool · 01/12/2018 08:40

Hospital parking is a nightmare, even with a blue badge. And one hospital I have to take DD to has no parking at all and the local authority doesn’t recognise blue badges issued by other boroughs. Aargh.