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?

Why should they have used public transport if they pay for the use of a car? Strange comment.

You've posted this on AIBU and quite a lot of us would have done the same as you but would have paid the charge so, yes, we think you're being unreasonable. Why post on AIBU if you're not prepared to at least listen to different opinions? I hope your DC is OK now.

Because there's not enough parking on site for everyone visiting the hospital. This is usually made clear on outpatient appointment letters but many choose to disregard it because they "pay for the use of a car".

If you'd parked on double yellows and the blue badge was displayed with the correct time clock then the parking would have been free and legal anyway for 3 hours.
From that side I can see why you're fighting it but if you're fighting it bc you didn't have your blue badge out and you'd just parked there in a emergency thats your problem and you should have been fined like you were

I’d be bloody grateful my child was OK and would have paid the fine within the qualifying period for it to be halved. I can’t get my head round anyone stressing themselves out and devoting so much time, energy and head space to a parking fine.

Why would you assume this? Penalties in my area are £160 if you pay straight away

It was £70, it says in the OP.

I think I'd have paid it too. It would be worth that to me to save 11 months of wrangling. But I hope you get a good outcome OP, and that the satisfaction outweighs the time and stress it has cost you.

Update - ticket has been cancelled. Facilities manager should said it should have been cancelled on first appeal. Glad there are still some people about with a bit of of decency!

Fantastic news, well done for pursuing it. Good job you didn't listen listen to the doom-mongers on here!

Excellent news, well done

When I worked in a hospital, I was shocked at how expensive a staff parking permit was. I was then further shocked at the fact there weren’t enough spaces and you would have to drive round in circles, desperately trying to find one. Both colleagues and myself had to resort to arriving at work a good 45 mins early in order to have any hope of finding a space. It was a stressful start to a stressful working day.

Cool story.

Because it's private land... bloody hell.

I hope you have written confirmation of that. Which parking company was it that issued the charge in the first place?

Convenient!

i once received a fine for parking longer than 20 minutes in the pick up bay. i’d been told to park there by the nurse as it was the closest point to collect a relative who had mobility issues after their investigations. however the relative also received news she had a stage 4 cancer and there was an awful lot to go through and take in about next steps before we left so i went over the 20 mins.
i found the email of the CEO of the Trust and complained to them. it was passed to the relevant Head of and the fine was cancelled and we were given free parking for the duration of relatives chemo and radiotherapy. they haven’t changed their parking set up though so i guess many get stung like this all the time.
when i worked in a hospital i was able to pay for a consultants parking space due to my role. cost a fortune but it meant i had my own allocated space so was worth every penny.
it is a huge issue for staff and visitors alike.