Dawlish Discussion

Anyone else heard about the car parking nonsense at Southmead?

I know its some distance from here but I suspect that like me quite a few who live here have Bristol based relatives. Also, the burns unit and other specialised units that were based at Frenchay have now been relocated to Southmead so folks from down here may find themselves either as patient or visitor at Soutmead.

Parking - from the experience of my own family members.

1. Out patient #1: Taxi needed  to get to hospital and back as although a family car was available and there is a purpose built multi storey car park at the hospital, there are not enough car parking spaces available for the staff let alone patients and their visitors! Cars get parked on the street in the surrounding residential area but that means that visitors and out patients have a hell of a time trying to find somewhere to park. Cost of taxi fare from where this particular relative of mine lives in Bristol to Southmead £13.00 (would have been another £13.00 to then get back home but they were lucky to get a lift back from another family member who works in North Bristol).

2. Out patient #2: Out patient accompanied by relative. They were driven to Southmead by yet another relative because of parking problem. Out patient can hardly walk. They had to be dropped off by car driver (because no where to park) as near as possible to relevant out patient department and then car driver took herself off to Blaise Castle where she parked up for free and waited for a mobile phone call from the hospital relatives asking her to come and pick them up.  

3. Collection of in-patient being discharged. This happened today and has just been told to me. Relative takes car to Southmead to pick up elderly relative who has been hospitalised because of breathing difficulties. Relative can find nowhere to park either in the hospital or in the streets nearby. Explains why she is there to security(?) who lets her park near entrance to hospital but she can't leave car as she is not supposed to be there. So.......she phones another  relative who works in north Bristol (see 1 above) who themselves gets a lift over to Southmead. This relative then sits in the car whilst other relative goes off in search of elderly relative who is being discharged (with me so far?). Eventually, elderly relative discharged and they get back to car. They then take other relative back to work. Phew!

Don't say you haven't been warned!

@Lynne

Can agree with you 100% on this. I have relatives in the Bristol area who can vouch for the mess-up regarding parking at the new hospital. Staff are being bussed in from Frenchay Hospital, which is set to close in the near future, and this is adding hours to their working day. They are leaving in droves. Have also heard that the finishing off of some of the departments is causing difficulties and operations are having to be cancelled because the theatres are not ready.

@Cassandra - apparently there will be more car parking space around autumn 2015 when the old southmead hospital buildings have been knocked down thus freeing up space for new car parking spaces.

Now, and this has been pointed out in newspaper reports and the comments underneath those reports, you would have thought someone, somewhere would have realised that not only do staff need somewhere to park but also patients and their visitors quite a few of whom will be travelling to the hospital from the rural hinterland around Bristol that Southmead also serves. So, homilies from from them wot be in charge of this mess about people being able to travel to the hospital by bus (yes and that includes patients and heavily pregnant women!) are not only ridiculously laughable but they are also not in the least bit feasible if the place where the member of staff/patient/visitor lives doesn't have a bus service in the firtst place!

Google Southmead Hospital car parking and have a read of the Bristol Evening Post reports.

Oh and I've just remembered being told of yet another example of not being able to park at the hospital which is.............a neighbour of a relative has cancer. She (the neighbour) is being treated as an out patient. Because of the nature of her illness and frequency of having to go to Southmead she has been given a free parking pass. But guess what? Such is the hassle she has in finding a car parking space when she gets to Southmead that she doesn't use the pass and instead gets someone to drop her off and then pick her up again when she is ready to go home.

Perhaps they could offer park and ride to patients/visitors from Frenchay to Southmead until the new car spaces come online at Southmead next year? I  know it would add time and wouldn't suit all but it would be better than the situation is now.

I hate moaning about the NHS - but this really is beyond a joke.

just to make a small comment here without having to much of a dig at the NHS but isent car parking an issue at most large hospitals. I refere locally of course to Exeter, Torbay, Plymouth and Trelisk. Im not 100% sure but most of the above mentioned seem to promote and advise use of their local commercial park and ride schemes. For fact Exeter actually give these details with your admission letter.

Again not sure on the legal side but I dont believe any employer including the NHS is obliged to provide close proximity car parking for its staff. In fact is it not a taxable item these days to park free at work.

Sensibily it obviousely has to provide an adequate drop off and collection area with say a 1 hour limit and suitable emergency spaces at A&E.  

Really dont think with cost cutting and tightening of resources throughout what is still for most a free service that car parking should be on their No1 priority list. Which I believe is why most contract the operation and control of such to outside companies.

Mmmmmm.......having experienced being heavily pregnant and then being in labour would I have wanted to have been on public transport in order to get to the hospital? No. Having had a broken arm would I have wanted to have had to wait for a bus to get to me to a hospital? No. Could elderly relative with breathing difficulties have travelled to the hospital by bus? No.  

From what I can gather the drop off and collection area isn't big enough for all the cars that need to use it which is what happened when that younger relative of mine went to collect that elderly relative of mine yesterday.

When it was 2x hospitals ie Southmead hospital and Frenchay Hospital the patients and staff and visitors and their cars were distributed over two separate sites. Now that Frenchay has virtually closed all the patients and staff and visitors that would have been at Frenchay have been displaced to Southmead.

Someone didn't put their thinking cap on did they?

I have made many complaints to RD&E about the fact that you must pay in advance for parking and not pay on exit. Exeter has 2 4 or all day charges, so in almost all cases you end up over paying for parking. Whilst I have no complaints over the treatment I have received I do think that the hospital sold the parking franchise without proper review.

Cannot complain about parking at R D & E as last year partner was diagnosed with prostate cancer and had to attend radiotherapy unit in Oncology for 38 sessions, as well as other times for associated tests. During treatment, we were issued with a ticket to place on the windscreen for the whole 8 weeks' period and could park in any of the car parks for however long it took. It made what was certainly a stressful enough time slightly easier. Also, I understand that if you have an appointment which is running late in any of the departments, the receptionist  will take your car registration no. and report it to the parking attendant who will make sure you are not given a ticket for going over your time.

Pre-paying for hospital parking anywhere is the most disingenuous form of parking revenue I can possibly think of.  Planners know full well that many people will be obliged to overpay from fear of being stuck waiting in the hospital for unpredictable lengths of time.  Worse still, at a time of stress or emergency it is very likely you won't have a pocket full of coins on arrival, just to add to your woes.

Chelmsford hospital is even more robbing, the visiting time is two hours but the minimum charge in the car parks is three hours at £6.00 

Isn't the NHS priority health ?

Shoud they spend money on hospitals or car parks ?

I would sooner have a bed for my relative than a parking space

Other than those that need an ambulance I would imagine most patients get to hospitals by car. So what happens to the cars when patients arrive at the hospital and there are no parking spaces?

How would my relative who can hardly walk get to the hospital? Ditto my relative who can hardly walk up the stairs without getting out of breath and having to sit down to recover? And what about heavily pregnant women and those in labour.

Just a few examples I know but I would be interested to know how, other than by ambulance or car, patients are to get to hospital.

Also, as in the case of Southmead Hospital in Bristol, small local "cottage" hospitals are being closed and people from miles away have to use the bigger "super-hospitals" such as Southmead where previously they probably wouldn't have had to travel so far for their treatment. I think it's obvious that most of them are going to come by car because there won't be any alternative.

Taxi, bus, hospital cars

I can't beleive my eyes, people slagging off the NHS for their lack of parking facilities = no wonder the immagrants do so well here they appreiate a good service and a good country

Taxis - not all can afford them.

Buses - not everyone has acces to a bus service and even if they do their state of health may prevent them from using buses.

Hospital cars - didn't know there was such a service. So just looked it up. Am I right in thinking it is a service provided by the NHS?      

Volunteering in Health also provide a hospital car service

I think "slagging off" is a little strong andysport. 

Trying to take a relative with dementia to Exeter hospital was quite a challenge.  Dilemma - do I abandon the car and risk a ticket or abandon the relative and risk them getting lost/upset.  Getting a hospital car can also be difficult as they only run between certain periods of time so if you have a late appointment (not usually a choice) you may not get home with them.

I have personally experienced, this very day, the absolute chaos that is Southmead Hospital's on site traffic management.  I won't call it a on site transport management scheme as that would imply that it somehow has a method and a logic behind it all.

How an accident has not happened yet (irony of ironies eh?) I do not know. Buses, cars, push bikes, taxis and pedestrians all not only to be found in large quantities immediately outside of the hospital's main reception area but also all mixed up together (pedestrians having to cross the roads and getting in and out of buses, cars, taxis). 

Mayhem! (and extremely dangerous to boot).  

Visted patient at Southmead yesterday (Saturday).

Strongly suggest that if anyone else goes patient visiting that they do so at the weekend. Plenty of spaces in the car park. Whole complex so very, very, quiet compared to the mayhem of week days.

If you can avoid going to Southmead Mon-Fri.  Do!