No 24 hour car park near very large Inner City hospital.

[FunCrab]

I attended accident and emergency with my partner recently. I drove to the A&E because the previous week we were told we would need to wait 11 hours for an ambulance. I arrived at the car park which was signed posted from the hospital at 5 pm. My partner was not seen in A&E until 1 am, Eight hours later.
Following that we returned to the car park to collect the car to go home to find out the car park was locked from 10 pm until 6 am. I asked about getting the car out and was towed. It would cost £100 to get somebody to unlock the car park for us to collect the car.
The previous week when I had drove to the same hospital with my partner to a A&E he was admitted and I could have been going to this car park on my own which is down a side street. We need to wait on a taxi at 1 am and I needed to return to the car park just after 6 am to collect the car.
When I looked at this car park again there were signs to say the car park was closed between 10 pm and 6 am, however when one is bringing their partner to A&E, how many people look for signs that the car park is not open all night and if I had noticed this was I supposed to come and get the car out at 10 pm and park elsewhere which may be very unsafe for me to do as a woman.
The nearest 24 hour car park to this particular hospital is 15 minutes walk away.
Am I being unreasonable to expect a large city centre hospital with an ANE department to have a 24 hour car park?
I am being unreasonable to expect a large city Centre hospital with an ANA department to have a 24 hour car park.

I think it depends which hospital. Northwick Park, Ealing and Central Middlesex have 24 hour car parks.
i think it’s the more central hospitals that don’t, such as the Whittington.

Same in most South London ones. Good luck finding on-street parking near St Thomas’!

Not sure that follows. I once waited in a&e for almost that long w ds2. He was literally the last child to be seen at 2am. Once he was seen he was admitted to a ward where he stayed for the next 3 weeks as he was, in fact, dangerously ill.

@FunCrab was replying to my comment about it being even worse for staff.

Given the number of people who would drive to A&E and then be admitted for say 3-4 days I could see a dedicated A&E 24 hr car park would soon fill up with cars abandoned for a week at a time. Then people would start complaining about the 24 hr car park that is always full.

I was thinking this…and OP also said “they thought he had sepsis”. He either had sepsis or he didn’t. I’ve had sepsis and not only was it probably the worst pain I have ever been in but they told me I had sepsis.

£100 fine is a lot though, ultimately I think the majority of A&E visits one should drop off and find appropriate parking or get a taxi.

Posts like to compare to healthcare in other countries, we are a small island, with so many people. Let’s try & be fair to the NHS.