"J Block Outpatients Not Disabled Friendly"

Whoever designed the J-Block Outpatients Building needs to go back to school and start again. Today’s appointment, firstly the main double doors to J-Block don’t open, they are supposed to be automatic, but they are broke, so one side is open, the other bolted closed. Not ideal when you are a carer pushing someone in a bariatric wheelchair, i.e. wider than your average wheelchair so you need both doors open. Upon asking staff on reception for help, they did not know what to do, only to say it had been like that for a while. Eventually I managed to squeeze through the door. Then you get inside, Cardiology Ultrasound is on the second floor, and signs to the only lift in the building are not visible, so initially I walked past the lift, but I realised I had gone wrong. Walking back, every single internal door had to be manually pushed open, not one had a button to press to open them automatically, exactly how do you expect someone pushing someone else in a wheelchair to get through the doors. I am sorry if I have damaged your nice new paint work in trying to get my elderly father to his appointment this morning.

I also question why there are three disabled parking spaces outside J-Block for staff, yes, I understand there are staff who are disabled, and who have a blue badge and so who can use these spaces, but this morning (and the same in April when I visited for an outpatient appointment) all three spaces were used by people without Blue Badges. I had to use the car park off Redgate Way, and the dropped kerbs are just not dropped enough, there is still a tiny lip which makes manoeuvring a wheelchair that is heavy over them very difficult. The one to the main road, is still too high to manoeuvre a bariatric wheelchair over, as are the dropped kerbs on the pedestrian crossing, and then when you get across the road, you have to navigate a pavement with a raised paving stone, and a giant orange cone, warning you that the paving stone is broke and raised. I can’t see many reasonable adjustments being made in this hospital to help those with disabilities access their appointments. Next time my elderly disabled father will use NHS Hospital Transport to get to any appointments, I quit.