Is anything being done about parking at Dundee’s Ninewells Hospital?
I’m not the first to mention the problems by a long chalk: this has been reported on several times since parking became free in August 2021.
The problem is still there, but the galling thing is that nothing seems to change.
Nothing has been mentioned about this for months.
Is it being investigated?
Is a remedy on the horizon?
I have friends who work at the hospital in clinics that, if you are to attend, are a matter of life and death.
In the past couple of weeks they have told me of people who have anxiously phoned to apologise, saying they were trying to get to their appointment and had allowed plenty of travel time, but couldn’t find a parking space.
One woman was 40 minutes late.
Another gave up.
Another friend was wary of the parking so had his wife take him to the drop-off point.
It took 40 minutes from joining the queue until his wife was able to drive out the other side.
He had to leave the car long before the drop-off area and walk.
These are anecdotal reports.
I make no claim this is a scientific study into parking or its effects on appointment attendance.
But I doubt staff or visitors are making up stories.
Whose job is it to tackle Ninewells parking chaos?
If the parking problems are due to outpatients or visitors, then you’d expect constant coming and going of cars.
But, again anecdotally, that doesn’t seem to happen.
Cars sit for hours.
There have been persistent claims that Ninewells is used as an unofficial park-and-ride, with people preferring to pay a bus fare (or go free depending on their age) than fork out for a city centre car park.
Right enough, even deducting the bus fare, that could save around £6 a day.
But is this actually happening?
Who is looking at the parking problem?
What are their conclusions?
What are they going to do about it?
And when?
Support for free parking at Ninewells Hospital sours as drivers create unofficial ‘park and ride’ to city centre https://t.co/2pTS363xSS
— Alasdair Clark (@alasdair_clark) October 2, 2022
NHS Tayside, is this under your purview?
Saba Parking, is it you?
Do city councillors have a view?
Are you all working on it together?
Tell us please.
Time for the public to demand action
Something needs to change.
It might be a badge to allow Ninewells staff to park and a QR code on appointment letters that outpatients could display on their dashboard?
These measures would require changing the current system of short and long-stay car parks and permits, and possibly the use of wardens.
But that might be cheaper, in real terms, than the cost to the NHS of missed appointments.
The Scottish Government paid £9 million to buy out the former PFI Ninewells car park contract.
What are we getting for that money?
Perhaps there are people reading this who have been late for appointments?
Or Ninewells staff who see evidence of missed appointments?
Perhaps you could speak up about your experiences?
When enough people complain, that’s what gets action.
