I JUST WANT TO SEE MY GIRL

Mum’s heartfelt plea to hospital car park bosses

DONNA Watts Smith (above) has been visiting her sick daughter Sammie (inset) in hospitals for 27 years. But she says she cannot get to Gold Coast University Hospital each day now because of the $17-a-day parking fees. “They forget about the families,” Ms Watts Smith said. “Private companies shouldn’t be able to make money out of people’s misery.”

DONNA Watts Smith has been visiting her sick daughter Sammie in hospitals for 27 years.

But, for the first time, she says she cannot get to Gold Coast University Hospital each day to be by the side of her eldest girl because of the crippling costs of parking her car.

Daughter Sammie was not supposed to live beyond 18. She has cystic fibrosis and was this week on dialysis. Often something as simple as a cold would put her in hospital for weeks.

“Of course I would like to go up there every day. She is my daughter,” Ms Watts Smith said. “But $17 is super expensive and you end up paying into the hundreds by the end of the week. I am at the point where I go every second day to avoid the costs. We can’t afford it.

“They (car park owner Secure Parking Group) forget about the families that are there to support the patients. I don’t think the private companies should be able to make money out of people’s misery.”

The Nerang mother is not even eligible for a State Government parking concession at the hospital because she is not a patient or a primary carer.

The Bulletin has learned taxpayers tipped in $450,000 last year so 1200 patients a month could receive a $5-a-day discount.

Secure Parking charges $17 a day at GCUH, over three times as much as the publicly owned Robina Hospital car park.

In 2014, the Bulletin revealed Secure would reap almost $92 million over 30 years under a deal struck with the government. The contract set the fees and guaranteed Secure’s ownership and operation. However, Secure Parking yesterday denied any control of the fees.

“Secure Parking are engaged to manage the car park operations only and do not control the car park fees,” a spokeswoman said.

“The pricing of parking was set under a competitive tender process that was used to procure the construction and operation of the car park. Rates for all users of the car park were set at this time, subject to escalation.”

Secure Parking would not reveal the annual profit made off the GCUH car park. The company sold a major interest to Japanese company Park24 for $227 million in 2016.

Sammie said not having her mother by her side each day was tough.

“Having someone here breaks the day up. It's the shoulder to cry on when you’re in pain or frustrated,” she said. “Sometimes you just need that second pair of ears when the doctors are talking to you but I think it’s mostly not feeling like you‘re going through it alone.”

Hannah Bloch, executive director corporate services at Gold Coast Health, said the subsidy scheme was helping.

“We know that in a hospital environment many people are experiencing difficult circumstances and parking costs can cause additional stress,” she said. “We’ve worked hard to establish a fair and equitable system that will allow as many eligible consumers as possible to access a parking concession.

“Since the scheme (began) 12 months ago, we’ve been pleased to offer more than 1200 concessional car park spaces every month for patients and primary carers at GCUH and more than 130 spaces at Robina Hospital.”