Hospital Parking Charge - AIBU to think this is outrageous?

[AgileLemonShark]

In January, I had driven DS (13) to a GP appointment and was told to take him straight to the hospital as an emergency as GP thought he had appendicitis.

There were no spaces when we got there as usual (I have a disabled badge and no disabled spaces either), so we drove around for 5-10 minutes waiting but no cars were moving so I decided to park on an access road to one of the car parks near the A&E entrance.

This access road has been used as ‘overflow’ parking for all years I’ve lived here (20). I had parked there many times before including a few weeks before for a routine clinic appointment. Other cars were parked along there but I noticed they’d put double yellow lines down which weren’t there before so they must have done it recently, but had to take a chance as needed to get my DS into the hospital and I was in a panic as DS has Type 1 diabetes and I was petrified of possible surgery and complications,

When we got in, I couldn’t leave him to go and try to move the car as didn’t know how long I’d be trying to find a space as hospital is a huge area with multiple car parks, and we might have been called. We were then waiting to be called for a scan, his blood sugars weren’t stable and I wasn’t going to leave him unsupervised. When my husband got to the hospital after work about two hours later I immediately went to move my car and it had a penalty ticket on it.

I appealed under extenuating circumstances when was refused, then went to the parking adjudicator who also refused it.

I enclosed my son’s admission sheet showing he was admitted that day and had surgery, and a copy of disabled badge.

I would have thought that would be classed as extenuating circumstances which is what I appealed on.

I then left it as was furious it had been refused and am now being chased by a debt collection agent for £170 with the threat of court action. Think the original penalty was £70.

What was I supposed to do, drive out of the hospital to a car park 10-15 mins walk away and then get my son to walk back to the hospital? It was an emergency! His blood sugars were high and he was in too much pain to walk!

Maybe I should have driven back home and called an ambulance?

There was no loss incurred as we were exempt from parking charges due to the disabled badge.

I don’t want to pay it also don’t want a CCJ and extra court costs. I could understand if I caused an obstruction but why should they profit from my son needing emergency medical treatment and not having enough parking spaces?

PALs will not help and I emailed the onsite parking company today again and they said I lost my appeal so tough.

I am just so furious about this and think it is outrageous to rinse people for money who are having to visit a hospital.

AIBU?

Hospital parking in general is shocking. My elderly dad was in hospital for an extended stay recently and going back and forth cost me over £100. Some hospitals have a ‘long stay’ ticket so you can pay £20 for a month but most just do small charges - and they soon add up.

I’m really sorry you went through this OP. Fighting with faceless bureaucrats is guaranteed to raise your blood pressure. Honestly, for your peace of mind (even though it’s unfair), best to just pay up and put it behind you. Hope your son is ok now!

TBH the original notice was probably what £30 if you paid in 2 weeks or whatever - I’d have just paid it straight away - you knew you couldn’t park there but did anyway

I feel furious for you OP.its disgusting to make money out of people in this way.

Whilst it was probably classed as a medical emergency the same rules around parking still apply. I agree that it’s very frustrating however you’ve obviously incurred penalties for non payment of your ticket and probably should have just paid when you got the ticket.

I think the medical emergency has to outweigh the parking issue here

I really feel for you and i would have done exactly the same. I would be tempted to take it to court. Perhaps contact the local paper?

This kind of thing is a huge problem. It's impossible to get a space at our local hospital. They have built thousands of new houses locally but no additional hospitals etc. It will get worse and worse.

Good luck OP. I hope you get it sorted.

I do sympathise as hospital parking is annoying, but you have to realise everyone there is in the same situation, if not an even more urgent one. Your son had possible appendicitis, the next person could have come in having a heart attack, a stroke, leg amputation, spinal fracture or unable to breath - and the ambulance can't get through as you've parked your car there and not come back to move it.

I would have done exactly what you did. Parking is also horrific at my local hospital.But I would also have accepted I was doing wrong and paid the charge. You knew you were parking on double yellows, and then, rather than moving as soon as possible, before you might have been caught, you forgot to go back. Perfectly understandable, but it meant you were parked there for hours, so were definitely going to get a penalty.

If you'd just paid the £70 you would have avoided all this fuss. It's annoying when there aren't enough spaces but, in an emergency, £70 is probably a bargain.

I'm a paramedic, at one of the local hospitals, people park on all the access roads to ED including on double red lines leaving only just enough space for an ambulance to get through, but it also traps traffic as there is no pull in space for vehicles passing in opposite directions. Many ambulances entering in blue lights (so a lot more critically unwell than you son) have been held up due to this inconsiderate parking.

Pay your fine OP and don't do it again!

A bargain for what??!

What's appalling is that there was insufficient parking in the first place. There will be plenty of people taking up space who could have got public transport but chose not to.

Aren't those fines normally halved if you pay them in the first 14 days?

Just pay the fine and forget about it. Don't let bloody-mindedness get you even deeper into this hole.

I thought disabled badges allow you to park on double yellows? Might be wrong but I've seen it a fair bit locally to us.

I've never known a hospital that wasn't shit for parking.

I think you just have to accept that it's shit but part of the pay off for free treatment. Your son got seen and you didn't pay a penny right? So you don't really have much choice but to suck it up as part of the cost of the emergency you experienced.

A bargain for receiving free life saving care.

Honestly, I’d have parked there like you did but put up when it was £70. It’s really annoying, I’d have been frustrated but ultimately pretty much everyone in the hospital will have had a version of your story. No one goes for fun. Given they have recently added double yellows backs up they really don’t want people parking there.

Sorry but you're being unreasonable, why didn't you just pay the £70 and move on. You will have potentially ruined your credit score now it's with a debt collection company. They're not rinsing you, they have to stop people parking where they shouldn't. If it was that bad, he should have been in an ambulance.

Not on private land. This is made quite clear in the paperwork you receive with your blue badge.

But where does it end?

Parking on zig zags
Leaving car blocking road

Do we grade the emergency situation?
A suspected appendix is not an immediate life or death as shown by the fact you could queue for 30 minutes for the receptionist

Problem is people always think that their situation is special enough to not follow the rules, if everyone did this it would be carnage.

Despite what I've said I understand why you parked there, but you should have just paid the £70. You took the risk.

Hope your DC is recovering well.

No that wasn’t the case at all. The access road I parked on led only to a car park in the hospital complex. Nowhere to go in there other than just park your car. No ambulances would be in there, it wasn’t the main entrance or anywhere near the ambulance drop off area. It’s an approx 60-70ft two lane road with a wide area at the bottom turning left into a small carpark. People parked on one side of it for many years when no other spaces. There’s no obstruction, you can clearly see up and down the road and wait to pass if someone’s coming down.

There weren’t designated parking spaces along it though so I only parked there if desperate but never got a ticket.

They must have only recently put yellow lines down before I parked there again.

It certainly was not inconsiderate parking.

Is it a private company? Like Euro Car Parks? I’ve read that you don’t have to pay those and they will leave you alone eventually but best to check that.

Contact her local paper for what exactly????Oh yes, for parking illegally, getting a ticket, refusing to pay and incurring penalty charges. What do you think the local paper should do?

Whilst it’s unfortunate and frustrating the OP took a chance on parking where she shouldn’t have. Yes it was a medical emergency but so are most cases that present to A&E.

You put your child first, quite rightly.

Most hospitals seem to have inadequate parking (albeit private ones I've been referred to by the NHS seem to do better).

I have no issue with the NHS charging for parking but they should use the money to provide better parking and more of it. Most people going to a hospital do not need the stress of driving around for ages and usually cannot manage to walk from other car parks in the area.

Parking at our local hospital was once free, but they eventually had to introduce charges, since the railway station is close by, and people were taking the piss.

It can be very hard to find a space, though. We are luckily walking distance, but I used to do voluntary patient transport and it could take ages to find a blue badge (or any) space, when the patient needed assistance, and so couldn’t just be dropped off.

i would have done exactly that, then challenge the penalty charge.
but i would pay if i could afford it if they denied the challenge because fighting sometimes takes too much energy.

Hope your DC is ok now?

Just pay it I think. It’s not worth all this drama and stress and it sounds like the ticket was correctly issued. Everyone parking at a hospital is there for one important reason or another. I would pay it and move on with my life and be cross with myself that this has all cost me an extra £100.