Carpark suggestion

About a month ago an elderly pensioner in his nineties had an appointment at the specialists’ consulting rooms at West Gippsdland Hospital.

When he arrived there was no parking available except for four spaces dedicated for use by hospital executive officers.

The new road, with parking for about 28, was closed because repairs were already necessary, so the only course was to return to Landsborough Rd and find a gap somewhere in the 40 cars already parked on both sides of the road.

If the new facilities had been available the parking would have been fully occupied, with at least a dozen more having to park down on the roadside, and that is an everyday situation.

The patient, apart from being elderly, was suffering from thrombosis in the upper leg, a painful ulcer on the right ankle, crushed and severely bruised ribs caused by a fall and also a painful paresthesia in both feet.

It can be easily seen that walking along the road then up the steep hospital drive and in to the consulting rooms was not an easy task, but there was no alternative.

Alternative would have been possible if there had been a different approach taken before building the current eyesore that has taken up all the grassed area, or lawn in front of the hospital, without being of benefit regarding the parking problem.

It may be worth the comment that with almost all hospitals within the state crying out for more funds to either extend or build a new hospital it is very unlikely that any new hospital for the Warragul/Drouin district, perhaps to be built at Lardners Track, can be expected to materialise within the next couple of decades.

With parking being at such a premium for hospital staff as well as visitors, and for outpatients attending all the ancillary medical services that are forever increasing perhaps a bold step should have been taken and a proper three tier carpark of a simple design to accommodate upwards of 450 cars, could have ben built by using all of the front hospital space.

Quite a lot of planning would be necessary and access and egress not very simple, but the slope of the site could be utlised beneficially and the expertise of a civil engineer could easily overcome any problem.

One could imagine the height of a three storey building as proposed would probably be level with the front of the hospital and if the roof was such as could be grassed with shrubs and flower beds it would be very attractive feature and the presence of the cars scarcely noticed.

Cost is an unknown factor and would likely be several million dollars, but progress is always expensive.

It is not generally known that much of the present new road and parking is constructed on an area where the soil was never properly com pacted as it was just mainly topsoil from excavation of the paddock to allow the building of the new laundry facility.

Much of the soil was just carted down to the lawn that was quite undulating to begin with, tipped and spread to give a reasonable look with no thought that it would ever have a road built on top of it.

The present stretch of new road might be expe ted to have ongoing problems with stability, but hopefully not.

Joseph Ridley, Warragul