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Car parking at Royal Victoria

Posted By MaggieG1978

"Car parking at Royal Victoria"

About: Royal Victoria Hospital (Belfast)

(as a relative),

I recently went with my father, who is in his 80s, to a hospital appointment.

We were on site twenty minutes before his appointment. We waited in a parking queue until five minutes before he was due in before I left the queue and drove around the site to drop my Father as close to the door as I could. I then rejoined the queue and waited 55 mins to park my car, by which time the appointment was over.

My Father had to navigate the hospital himself and find where he was going, go through the appointment himself, when he has hearing difficulties, and then wait around for me at the entrance.

If the car parking access is this bad then the appointment letters should at least warn patients to be prepared for this! Had this information been on his appointment letter then both myself and my sister would have gone so that one of us could accompany my father as he finds it so difficult to hear!

On the contrary, the appointment letter actually specified the importance of not arriving early! This is appalling service and very stressful for anyone trying to get to an appointment on time! 

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Responses

Response from Susan Garland, PPI Support Services Manager, Logistics, BHSCT 17 months ago
We are preparing to make a change
Susan Garland
PPI Support Services Manager, Logistics,
BHSCT

Submitted on 27/11/2023 at 11:10
Published on Care Opinion at 11:43

Firstly, thank you for your feedback. We use all feedback to work towards improving our services and greatly appreciate it.

Please accept my apologies for your recent car parking experience on the RVH site. The Belfast Trust encourages staff to commute to work by public transport, walking, cycling, by motorbike or to car share. Despite this, the demand for car parking by staff exceeds the limited amount of car parking available on each site – particularly on the RVH site. Allocated car parking for staff reached capacity a number of years ago with many staff on a waiting list for car parking for up to 3 years. As a consequence, staff often park in the public carparks and pay the daily tariff and this impacts on spaces, especially in the main visitors carpark. This can add to the anxiety that many patients and their families may already be experiencing and leads to understandable levels of frustration.

To ensure that available staff parking provision is targeted towards those in greatest need, the Trust recently agreed to apply carpark access criteria for staff. The pandemic delayed the rollout of the new criteria but the system has now gone live on the BCH site and will roll out to the Mater and RVH sites soon. This will result in more spaces being available for patients and their families. The Trust also operate a free Park N Ride from Blacks Road to the RVH for staff to try and alleviate some of the pressures of car parking on this site.

The Trust is also preparing for the Hospital Charges Bill coming into effect in May 2024. This Bill will result in tighter controls around access to visitor carparks and will alleviate the current car parking queues.

I will pass on your feedback re appointment letters to the relevant teams, I can also advise at the main hospital entrance we now have host and hostesses to guide clients to the relevant departments and if you need assistance this can be requested at the reception desk.

I hope the above explains some of the measures being taken to improve parking for patients and their families. Please feel free to contact me if you have any further issues relating to car parking and my apologies again for your recent experience.

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