Hospital Parking Wars

[Nootka]

Long time lurker so I know this is the place where I will get my arse handed to me if people think I was being unreasonable so here goes.......

My partner is in hospital, admitted yesterday and is being kept in. Very worrying at the moment. I visited him today and the car park was manic, I was actually shocked at how busy it was as in the past when I have attended for routine appointments I haven't had an issue, so it must have been the time of day.

After driving round and round to no avail I decided the best think I could do was pull over in an area and wait to see if someone came back to their car. I pulled over to make sure people could get comfortably pass me and waited. After about 15 minutes 3 people were returning to their car which was just near why I was waiting so I was delighted. They were really taking their time, but I wasn't bothered, I wasn't impatient at all, just waited. They didn't look very happy and the driver of the car started pulling out while the man and woman stood next to the bay and it became clear that they were "saving" the bay for a woman who had pulled up beside me to try and swing into the space. I was polite, but I told the woman that I had been waiting for 15 minutes and she was not getting that spot. There wasn't really a way she could unless I moved and she started screaming at me that he 91 year old father was in the hospital. I didn't scream back because I can relate to being worried about an elderly parent, but I was also there because I was worried about someone. But was I the one who was unreasonable?

Even if it was just a screen to enter your details and it gave you 1-2 hours free parking. (Although I’m not sure as my last outpatient visit was 3 hours). My mum was trying to get clean clothes to my dad and she struggled.

Our local hospital also has barriers and a one in one out system operating at the car parks.The queues especially at visiting times can be 15-20 cars easily.When you do get through the barrier you can be going up and down all the rows for a couple of minutes trying to find the empty space

Our conflict resolution training always highlights that most issues occur in the hospital car park. It's a battlefield out there.

The thing is that in a hospital car park the likelihood of stress is high due to anxiety about ill friends/relatives, trying to get to appointments on time combined with a shortage of spaces. Immense patience required from everyone! Well done for not shouting back!

I have a hospital 10 mins walk from my house . We have decided do rent our drive out , and we have a constant stream of people who park on our drive , who are either visiting the hospital or have appointments. It's done through an app called just park . It's a cheaper and you are guaranteed a parking spot .

I have an appointment at our local hospital this week and I’m filled with dread at the thought of parking there. I don’t mind paying for parking but I want it to be easy. It’s going to be a stressful appointment and I know it’s going to be hell!!

I visited someone in Oxford once and they had the one out one in policy. It was so much easier

Unfortunately that isn't how public car parks work though, you don't get to reserve a family spot for the duration.

OP YANBU, most people don't visit a hospital on a whim and everyone has a good reason for being there

@Obki

As you can see, some people on MN really hate an assertive woman

I don't think OP's gender has anything to do with this, there's no need to unnecessarily start an identity politics debate that doesn't exist.

For clarity, I support OP, just touch your particular statement is a load of rubbish

This is one of the problems with centralisation of hospitals. Obviously you're saving money when it comes to providing medical services but there's only so much parking you can fit around them. You've got people travelling in from all over and they are also quite often public transport black spots. Bloody nightmare.

The hospital I go to has no parking at all.
But the OP was fine in her situation.

I imagine the amount of stress in a hospital car park is enormous. People visiting very ill family members, or going for tests and procedures they're extremely nervous about, or going for results of tests and anxious they might get bad news.

But you still can't just expect to have a place held for you.

Y ANBU.

You really have no idea what you’re talking about. Come back when you’ve read up on the socialisation of women, you’ll see internalised misogyny is alive and well on MN.

@Obki I can certainly see rampant misandry and obscure conspiracy theorising is alive and well on MN....!

My local hospital has a system like that too.

Great in theory, except the car park is too small for the demand.
Once when I was on my way to an antenatal appointment (by myself) I got stuck in the queue for the car park for over an hour and a half. The waiting lane for the public hospital car parking goes through the staff car park, so there was no way for me to get out of the queue until the cars in front of me moved.

It was mega stressful. The receptionist in the antenatal clinic didn’t sound at all surprised when I phoned from my car to explain why I was running late for my appointment, so I’m guessing that this situation happened regularly.

On the bright side, at least I knew there was a free space somewhere once I finally made it into the car park.

Absolutely hate hospital parking, I just don’t understand the state of some hospitals/nhs trusts especially when it comes to outsourcing car parks. They could make an absolute fortune if they managed their car parks correctly. I’m in the middle of 2 big hospitals, one has appalling parking, the other amazing. The good one spent money on creating decent car park spaces for staff and visitors. The disabled and parent parks are all covered and in the right locations, closest to the entrance with safe pathways. Ive never once not got a spot, this week was the first time (no kids with me so couldn’t use a parent spot) I didn’t get a ground level spot and had to move up the car park, but by the time I got to lever 3 (of 5) there was loads of spaces. They created mini car parks around the hospital at certain entrances, all for disabled drivers so they don’t have to walk through the entire hospital. More importantly the fees are reasonable and capped. The other hospital, it’s chaos, pot holes, no lines spaces, have to load your registration to pay, most of the time the machine dosnt work or barrier dosnt work, extortionate fees, little to no disabled parks the ones they have are no where near the entrance and no safe access or pathways, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a parent park.

I remember during my last pregnancy being blocked in and hurting myself trying to squeeze into my car. A second time I physically couldn’t do it. Luckily my parents were in the same car park, my DFs chemo tended to clash with my hospital appointments. My M had to climb through the boot of my car and reverse out.

That's a good idea. I did an agency shift at Worcester hospital a couple of months ago and was late, despite being over half an hour early! Fortunately the ward were fine about it. I was mortified!

What misandry?

By that comment I think you’re a man.

@Obki 🤦‍♀️

I won’t do late shifts for this reason. We don’t have specific staff parking, it’s everyone together so if we start at mid day we don’t get a space.
I do days or nights when it’s less busy.
People block disabled bays, park on verges, block the ambulances or hospital cars etc.
It’s a free car park so there is that I suppose!

More like 🤦