Residents in the Menzieshill area of Dundee have hit out at NHS staff members they claim are parking in their street to avoid hospital charges.
Ninewells employees have even reportedly made an entrance to the hospital grounds in the perimeter fence between Clyde Place and car park nine.
One resident said she and other neighbours have had their cars damaged by hospital workers trying to manoeuvre their vehicles in the tight suburban street.
She said: ”People are cutting holes in the fence so they don’t have to pay parking charges when they access the hospital.
”There’s one hole at car park nine’s been very professionally done. It’s cut into the shape of a doorway.”
She added: ”Some of our cars have been damaged. I had my car backed into twice by people reversing into it.
”Everybody knows each other locally round here and if it had been one of the neighbours they would have said.
”We know someone who fixes cars so it didn’t cost me a great deal but it’s very irksome.”
She said she had reported the hole to the estates department at Ninewells but was not impressed by their reception.
”They weren’t terribly interested,” she said. ”It’s just the attitude of NHS Tayside we don’t like. The people locally are quite annoyed about it.”
NHS Tayside said it was unable to comment on any incidents which might occur outside the perimeter fence.
However, Ninewells site manager Brian Main said anyone who knows of problems in the fence should report them to the hospital.
He said: ”This amounts to an act of vandalism and the cost of repairs will once again need to be met from our valuable NHS resources.
”Ninewells Hospital is a large site and NHS Tayside relies on staff and members of the public to alert us to any issues.
”We would ask that if anyone sees a problem like this, they contact NHS Tayside on 01382 660111 and ask for the estates fault line.
”This means we can respond to any issues quickly.”