To just miss appointments as can’t park?

[Wishitwascooler]

Hospital is full to bursting and you can’t park anywhere for miles around. They won’t talk to me on the phone as I’m in the car even though outside hospital 😂 not sure what to do!

Our hospital has a park and ride system now as this problem has become so bad.

Yes if everyone arrives early that’s even worse.

We are 'lucky' in that our local super hospital they've built two 2 and 3 storey car parks. 20 min grace period. Never have a problem parking (even 'moan' sometimes when I have to park on L1 because Ground Level is full )

There is external parking but that is where you need to buy a ticket and guesstimate how long you'll be. The car parks have ANPR and you pay at the machine when you leave. Much less stressful when things are running late.

I think what you have to do is either go early or park elsewhere and then get to hospital by taxi/bus/tube depending on which one. Plan ahead is the way really rather than turn up just before, expect a parking space and then moan when you cannot find one and miss appointment.

I’ve been told this before too when calling a building society.

Yep, both DH and I always aim to be at the hospital way early for appointments due to the lack of parking. I appreciate that in a way this exacerbates the problem for others but it is better than driving for 45 mins, spending an hour circling the car park and then being told they won’t see you because you are late for your appointment (although it is fine for them to see you an hour or so late).

Where I am, public transport is being cut. the bus no longer goes to the hospital as that route has been cancelled. If you want to go by bus, there is one every 2 hours to the local shopping centre and then you can get a bus to hospital from there. Total journey time 3 hours + and £8 for tickets. Then similar journey time back.

Work won't let me take 7 or more hours off for a half hour appointment! I was late for my last appointment, but was lucky enough to be able to call and explain I was waiting for a parking space. It must be so annoying for the doctors and nurses.

If I took a taxi there, if have to the n take another taxi back to work to get my car.

In rural/semi-rural areas there really needs to be adequate parking.

Flip me, that's nuts - so unhelpful! Poor op, so stressful

The trust I work for (a community trust so lots of MH wards rather than acute) is rebuilding wards and so half the carparking space at our hospital is blocked off. It's become a nightmare - especially at the middle of the day when shifts change over (we don't have staff and visitor carparking separated out) and you've essentially got double the people trying to get a space for a while. It's only going to get worse as they expand the site and physically expand buildings moving away from the old style dormitory wards so need more physical space per patient.

You poor thing, that's horrendous. So stressful. Glad you got sorted though!!!

RBH Reading?

Glad you made it in the end. Our local hospital has wonderful parking, never a problem. But the bigger city hospital I go to regularly is a nightmare. One in one out from 8am every morning. And once you are in you find cars abandoned taking up 2 or 3 spaces as they came in overnight in a panic. For a 10 min appointment I have a 1 hour drive and 1 hour wait for car park usually.

@Spirallingdownwards adequate time to get there but without being a regular at the hospital you can’t know what the parking is like. It even took me by surprise today. No way would work allow me to leave two hours before my appointment to park! I should have called a taxi and will do so if this happens in future.

My hospital is dreadful. It is very common for people to ring us in tears, explaining they have driven round for an hour trying to find a car parking space and are unable to get parked so will have to miss the appointment. I prefer going to other hospitals, even going to ones over an hour away then have the stress of driving 10mins down the road but spending an hour finding somewhere to park.

I think it's optimistic to think you will be in and out though.
What if you need meds or an xray?
A half day would be more sensible?
Not sure why you are saying you just won't attend as if it will bother them?
The person it will affect is you!

Why did you climb a wall? Not being chippy, genuinely curious!

@Denimdreams of course, but I wouldn’t arrange an X ray or similar on a work day - they wouldn’t let me anyway, my antenatal appointments are covered by law of course.

Fine, don't like my suggestions. If you think being stuck in queues trying to park for hours is better for you...

They are rebuilding our local hospital. Roads around are either shut or have roadworks going on. Behind is a new housing estate being built.
The nearest place to park in a street is over a mile away which to do so is unfair on the residents.
Even the buses are finding it difficult.
God help the ambulances as it's one way at the moment.
Fortunately my DH can take me and he sits in the car hoping for a space.

@Housekeeperbatcocoa i had to park miles away and I was rushing as was already late. I was going through a supermarket car park and there was a wall between the car park and pavement. Going to where a gap was would have added a good five to ten minutes so I climbed on the wall and down the other side! Felt a complete fool.

Fair enough, I didn't know what the appt was for .

Your suggestions are ridiculous. "Airport style" drop offs indeed.

This isn't ridiculous at all!
My hospital has several drop off points.

Some of these replies are so silly.

I live in Cornwall and it’s practically impossible to get public transport to an appointment and even if you could it would take hours which means you couldn’t get a morning appointment there’s be no transport and if you work in a school like myself then they wouldn’t allow you to have an entire day off for it.

Some of us are also single parents and need to get back to pick our DCs up as there is no childcare after a certain time.

The drive takes over an hour and would cost hundreds in a taxi which most people can’t afford to do.

Not all of us have people who can drop us off either.
Most people cannot have time off just to take someone to a non emergency appointment, so even those with partners or friends or family that drive can’t always get a lift.

Getting to the hospital too early is going to cause worse parking issues as you’ll have more than double the amount of people there at the same time instead of staggering it.

Not sure why OP is getting flamed here, how was she to know the car park would be full? This isn't something I've ever encountered. And 'just take public transport' isn't an option for many

I was once sense to a specialist hospital for women and children for an emergency appointment with fetal medicine. Extremely stressful.

It’s at the heart of a massive city and attached to an enormous general hospital (though pedestrian access between the two is prevented by the location of a dual carriageway) which has many specialities, so is always inordinately busy.

I left bags of time, mainly because I was absolutely sick with anxiety.

For info: the W&C hospital has its own dedicated but small car park, next to the hospital. The general hospital has an enormous multi-storey one the other side of the carriageway.

When I arrived, I discovered that half of the small W&C car park had been taken up to store machinery and materials for workmen (and maybe women) working on the general hospital…

Temporary lines had been painted, shrinking the size of the parking spaces to narrower than the width of my actual car. Though that was moot anyway. The car park was completely full.

I saw pregnant and very recently postnatal women with tiny babies in car seats, trying to squeeze out of the minuscule gaps between cars.

I wound up parking miles and miles away in a housing estate and having to schlep, anxious and pregnant, back to the hospital. I encountered about eight other women doing the same.

Absolutely fucking mental.

When I asked why they didn’t use some of the massive car park to store the stuff stuff, the midwife rolled her eyes and said they always use their car park.