Care Opinion

Inadequate public parking facilities causing chaos

Posted By ABL

"Inadequate public parking facilities causing chaos"

About: Royal Alexandra Hospital (Paisley)

(as a relative),

Yesterday I drove my 87 year old mother to an early afternoon appointment at RAH Paisley. Having prior knowledge of the public parking difficulties there, I arrived 30 mins. early to secure a "blue badge" space closer to the hospital entrance. 55 mins. later I found a parking space.

In order not to miss her appointment my mother had to be helped from the car park to the main building causing her considerable discomfort and stress due to her condition.

While she attended her appointment, at which I was meant to accompany her, I watched many other drivers who like myself were either visiting or conveying patients to appointments, struggle to find a parking space and in the process create a scene of chaos. There was grid-lock across the car park, cars abandoned in "unofficial" spaces and a situation completely out of control due to insufficient traffic management, poor directional signage and above all else, far too few spaces.

The difficulties I describe are experienced on a daily basis by countless numbers of people and have been for many years as RAH develops into an alleged centre of excellence.

While speaking with a harassed but uncharacteristically courteous parking attendant, he showed empathy for the plight of all those trying to park but was powerless to help the situation. There simply were not enough spaces for all those needing them. He spoke of failed plans to erect a multi-storey parking facility, the loss of around 200 street parking spaces further exacerbating the problem and alluded to other factors causing the log-jam such as open visiting and increased volumes of patients and clinics being re-located to RAH.

I raise the following questions.

1. Is there any recognition within the Health Board that a serious shortage of public parking spaces exists at RAH Paisley?

2. Given this problem has been growing for years, what urgent steps are being taken to address the situation and when can a practical solution be delivered?

3. If there is no such practical solution why is there a relentless push by the Health Board to close localised services in favour of centralisation at RAH without providing the infrastructure to support the ever-increasing footfall?

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Responses

Response from Nicole McInally, Patient Experience and Public Involvement Project Manager, PEPI, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde 6 years ago
Nicole McInally
Patient Experience and Public Involvement Project Manager, PEPI,
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde

Submitted on 27/03/2018 at 14:05
Published on Care Opinion at 17:41

picture of Nicole McInally

Dear ABL

Thank you for your post on Care Opinion.

I am sorry to read about the difficulties you experienced in finding a car parking space at the Royal Alexandra Hospital.

We are aware that there are parking issues at our hospitals and how frustrating this is for our patients and visitors. I will forward your post to my colleagues in Facilities so that they can respond to your questions.

Kind Regards

Nicole

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Response from Nicole McInally, Patient Experience and Public Involvement Project Manager, PEPI, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde 6 years ago
Nicole McInally
Patient Experience and Public Involvement Project Manager, PEPI,
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde

Submitted on 20/04/2018 at 10:55
Published on Care Opinion on 27/04/2018 at 08:46

picture of Nicole McInally

Dear ABL

I was genuinely sorry to hear of the difficulty you experienced when parking at the Royal Alexandra Hospital. I apologise unreservedly to you and to your mother, for the difficulty, inconvenience and undue anxiety caused. I would be grateful if you could convey that to her on my behalf. The Royal Alexandra Hospital can be very busy - especially at peak times - however, your experience should have been much better, and I am aware of that.

As to the number, location and availability of on-site Blue Badge spaces, we do provide a higher proportion of these spaces than currently recommended by good practice guidelines. Furthermore, given the geography of the campus, they are located as conveniently as possible to the main clinical buildings but it is acknowledged that demand can, at times, exceed available the spaces available. If this happens when you attend hospital in the future, or if a space isn’t available near the entrance, please use the drop off zones/ areas, or seek assistance from a Car Park Assistant (recognisable in High Visibility jackets marked CP Plus Ltd) and an individual arrangement will be made.

Regarding capacity, in recent years we have commissioned various projects to identify and consider options that could enhance on-site parking and as a consequence we have increased the total number of spaces on the campus. In conjunction with this we continue to promote extensively alternative travel options for patients, visitors and staff including greater use of public transport, joining staff car share schemes, and participation in a wide range of active travel initiatives including walking and cycling. The local Facilities Management Team have also initiated a review of access, control, signage and traffic/ pedestrian flows to help protect spaces at busier periods for patients and visitors.

As noted, the campus does get very busy, especially at peak demand times. I have therefore instructed our facilities managers to review access, control, signage and traffic/ pedestrian flows to identify how to restore the effectiveness of systems on site.

Any future service changes will be factored into the planning and public consultation processes well in advance of implementation.

Kind Regards

Gerry McCool

Facilities Directorate

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