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!

This happened to me recently. Arrived 30 mins early to account for parking but there were no spaces in the multi-storey. Then got stuck behind half a dozen other cars also looking for spaces. I had to call the hospital to explain I was going to be late. I miraculously managed to find a tiny space a few streets away and walked in 20 mins past my appointment time. I should have left more time but the last time I visited there were plenty of spaces, perhaps because they were still doing a lot of telephone appointments.

Unfortunately, from where I live, public transport isn't very straightforward. I have no one to give me a lift and can't afford £25 for a taxi round-trip. So for my most recent appointment I parked a 15 minute walk away where I knew there would be spaces and arrived an oasis of relative calm. However, that appointment could have easily taken place over the phone. I think a lot of face-to-face appointments are unnecessary.

I agree. Posters tear strips off OPs for whatever they’re posting about. It’s a sport, it seems. Whatever they say and do, they’ve done it wrong.

I presume there’s hundreds of unhappy people trying to feel better about their own shitty lives by being absolute twats to the OP, a heavily pregnant woman… but they need to find a better way.

There’s precious little help and support left on this site anymore.

Ignore the aholes. Hope you're okay x

Let's keep those standards nice and low, eh. I have always thought there was hope for the NHS but I think it really is the end.

Flipping heck some of these comments are a bit harsh!

Yes parking at hospitals is horrendous but I don't think it's as easy as just 'jumping on a train'

The hospital I had my maternity apps at I arrived an hour or so before my apps and still couldn't bloody park half the time. Hospital was 45 mins from where I live and would have to get 3 buses or 2 trains and a bus to get there. Never mind the walking on top of that at 36 weeks pregnant.

So op I don't think you're being unreasonable, especially as you mention that you are 36 weeks pregnant!

Glad you made your appointment though, hope all is well!

People without cars face enormous barriers getting to hospitals outside of big cities. There is absolutely no way DH would have been able to get to hospital via public transport when he was having radiotherapy - he was just too unwell for what would have been a very expensive daily 3-4 hour round trip. We had to travel with a towel on the seat and a sick bowl. Fortunately I drive and have a very flexible and understanding employer, otherwise he would have been at the mercy of NHS patient transport which in my area has extremely restrictive criteria.

Having visited a whole variety of hospitals across the central belt of Scotland (thanks cancer) the unifying feature has been parking designed with no consideration for what a huge proportion of people visiting hospitals aren't well enough for public transport or staff whose shifts start or finish outwith the times buses run. It is immensely frustrating.

Bollocks! They should facilitate the people needing healthcare!

Our GP practice recently moved into purpose-built new premises - which included a multistorey car park - and it's still not enough!

Do you live in a city beginning with S? I’ve got to get the bus into town and change too.

Don't be stupid!

It's bad at the hospital I work at, our department just advises patients to arrive early and we do see patients if late but not all services will be able to do this. The trust wanted to build a multi storey car park but local residents said no. These same local residents get annoyed at staff parking legally not blocking outside their houses....

YABU to miss hospital appointments. What a waste of NHS resources. No wonder the NHS is on its knees

Speaking of knees as the NHS have been dragging their heels over doing my friends knee replacement then yes they can damn well provide the parking. And not fucking charge for it. Its fucking abuse.

But no they can get away with anything because of the cult of worship for it.

Hospitals are like schools, staff aside, most people who insist on driving there do not have to they just refuse to consider another option.

Fair enough if you have just been given a last minute appointment, too late to arrange a lift or a taxi and you happen to live in a place with absolutely no public transport. We all know that it's far from the majority. How often do you get a phone call telling you to show up at 10 the following morning?

Patients genuinely too unwell to walk won't be in a condition to drive anyway.

Yep!

People move to the middle of nowhere then have a fit when they find that it's a pain to get anywhere too.

Look, I completely take on board that I should have called a taxi, but public transport would take the best part of two to three hours. It really isn’t a practical solution in any way.

I would have to leave my workplace and get a bus to the city centre then another bus to the hospital. Then the same after the appointment. If I didn’t work, then fair enough, but I do and the insistence ‘wel they have to give you time off’ is only for the appointment time. Given the hospital is actually quite close to where I work, it wouldn’t be seen as reasonable to leave at 10 for an appointment at 12.

In any case, all is fine, wall is fine, NHS is not fine but not my fault …

What public transport???!

I don't live in the arse end of nowhere but there's no way I'm getting on a bus for almost an hour when I can be driven in 20-25 minutes.

Do they? Have you got any examples? I have never come across this. Btw, many people have no choice but to move to the 'middle of nowhere', either because they can't afford to live in the 'middle of somewhere' or because that's where the shared ownership properties are being built.

I have every sympathy with you OP. I live in a very rural area with no train station and a public bus service that doesn’t start until after nine and then it is not even one per hour. My GP practice, despite serving lots of outlying villages and hamlets, doesn’t even have a car park! And they don’t do blood tests either so I have to travel to a hospital in the next county for blood tests and the parking situation is completely shit. It’s a nightmare as I work remotely for an international company and have to explain to colleagues in other countries that I will be away from my desk for hours! Luckily my line manager is a very chilled American and I just mention the useless NHS and he doesn’t question it!!!!

I got a bus to the hospital when dh was there because of parking.

It was three changes and £10. I missed seeing him before he went down as it took so long.

@TokyoStories

Anybody who says "but I live rurally" when faced with these issues.

If you want easy access to services, you need to live near services.

@itshotontheplayground if I went by bus to the hospital that I’m sent to for blood tests (because my GP surgery doesn’t do them), it would take me 2.5 hours so a 5 hour round trip plus the time spent waiting in the hospital. I can’t take that much time off work for a basic blood test, so I drive which takes me 30 minutes.

Hospitals really should have excellent public transport and good bike routes - in an ideal world - fewer people driving and causing traffic jams would be great

It isn’t rural but perhaps some areas of the country don’t realise we don’t all have a public transport system that is functioning particularly well. If I wanted to get from my workplace to the city centre, I wouldn’t be able to get a train. It would have to be a bus. That’s fine but if I want to get to one part of the city to another I can’t get one bus on a circular system, it is a bus to the city centre then a bus to wherever else I want to go.

I work less than a ten minutes drive away from the hospital, getting four buses a day to get to an appointment isn’t practical.

You have to pay for hospital parking 😬 none of my local hospitals charge.

I'm in Wales though so that may be why, it's a devolved issue.

In my city there are 2 hospitals, both have dedicated shuttle bus services from the city centre bus station. So what many do, myself included is park in town where there is ample parking and take the shuttle bus service.

It surely can’t be hard for some posters to understand that not everyone has access to public transport, or is well enough to take it.

I live outside a major city in the south of England but if I couldn’t drive my hospital transport options would be:

• a lift, possible but my DH would need to take a day off work
• a drive for a few miles (no buses from my village) to a bus which comes 4 times a day, then a walk across town to another bus, then a short walk. Probably 2-3hr of travel each way, if the timings worked. Not sure how I’d get home
• drive to edge of city centre and get a bus from there (I do this as my work are very flexible but it’s an extra 1hr-1.5hr of travel time each way)
• £100 on taxis, £50 each way

I wonder if some posters would benefit from being a little more empathetic to the OP who has been perfectly reasonable in her post and responses, and understanding that it shouldn’t be a race to the bottom.