Impatient with parking
Eastern Health to increase number of blue zone parking spaces
Susan Glynn, along with goddaughters Alexis and Gabrielle Macdonald, ages 8 and 11 respectively, started a petition two years ago to have Eastern Health designate parking spaces for cancer patients in front of the Dr. H. Bliss Murphy Cancer Centre in St. John’s.
Susan Glynn took on her battle with cancer with a lot determination after being diagnosed with Stage 3 ovarian cancer in April 2015.
Around the same time, she began fighting for designated parking spaces for cancer patients near the Dr. H. Bliss Murphy Cancer Centre in St. John’s — part of the Health Sciences Centre that has been plagued with parking problems over the years.
“When I started my cancer journey, coming in for chemotherapy, on one day it took me 45 minutes to get a place to park, so I was late for my blood test. When I went to the clinic I asked other cancer patients if they had trouble with parking and they said yes,” Glynn said.
“So then, along with my two little god-daughters, Gabrielle and Alexis Macdonald, we set up a petition to try to get designated parking for cancer patients. We got 200 names on a written petition and presented it to (David Diamond, president and CEO of Eastern Health) and then we put it on Change.org and as of yesterday we are 4,000 strong (nearly 4,200 as of late Tuesday afternoon).
This petition has been on the go for two years.”
Glynn and a number of supporters held an awareness demonstration on the parking lot in front of the Dr. H. Bliss Murphy Cancer Centre Tuesday morning.
She said the frustration and stress of not finding a parking spot and of being late for an appointment is not good for a
cancer patient.
“My cancer battle just came back in April,” she said. “I just had chemotherapy on Thursday. So when I came in here the parking was a problem.”
Glynn said the group is asking for 25 parking spots to be painted red with the letter C so people will know those spots are designated for cancer patients.
Eastern Health issued a statement Tuesday saying it understands the concerns raised by Glynn and her group, and noted Eastern Health has been working with the group for over a year to find a resolution.
“Previously, an additional 15 blue zone parking spaces were added to the Health Sciences Centre parking lot,” the statement said. “In an effort to further increase access to blue zone spaces, Eastern Health will be adding eight blue zone parking spaces at the Health Sciences Centre within two weeks and another 12-15 spaces before winter. These blue zone parking spaces will be made available on the main patient parking lot, the underground parking lot and in a new parking lot planned near
the Janeway Children’s Health and Rehabilitation Centre.
“As a health authority that treats thousands of men, women and children with medical and/or mobility issues, we have an obligation to be fair to them all. While we recognize the specific challenges of patients in specific treatment programs, we cannot offer special parking consideration to one group of patients to the exclusion of patients from other treatment groups.
“Eastern Health has formally consulted with an ethicist about providing parking spaces specifically designated for cancer patients. We have also completed comparisons about parking throughout the country and we are providing as much access as possible to blue zone spaces and making them available to cancer patients as well as other patients with mobility issues. Any patient, including cancer patients, requiring closer parking to the facility may apply for blue zone permits though the Motor Vehicle Registration Division of Service NL. We have also established a new process whereby clinicians at the Cancer Centre can provide blue zone authorization for patients who require it.”
Glynn acknowledged that Eastern Health did increase the number of blue disability spots, but said the group was looking for designated cancer-patient parking spots, appropriately marked. She said other hospitals and clinics in the province have designated spots for cancer patients.
“We are not trying to take away or have favouritism with respect to other illnesses,” Glynn said. “If someone is critically ill, there should be designated spots for them. But the Dr. H. Bliss Murphy Cancer Centre is a separate building. We are looking for designated spots for those oncology patients.”
Jeff Blackwood has gone through the stress of the parking problem twice. He has lost two wives to cancer.
“Cancer patients, particularly those going through chemo, have exhaustion, nausea and all the other side effects that come from the drugs,” Blackwood said. “And the difficulty of finding a place to park near the front where you can get into the Dr. H. Bliss Murphy Centre or the Health Sciences Centre is stressful.”
He noted that since Eastern Health got rid of the parking meters there’s been a little improvement — as in a cancer patient no longer has to worry about getting a parking ticket for an expired meter — but exhausted patients still have to sometimes walk from the back of the parking lot.
“The lot is blocked, there’s always been difficulty,” Blackwood said. “To drop people off at the entrance and then go to find a parking place, it could take 15 or 20 minutes or more, and the person you dropped off is there waiting for you.”
Blackwood said he had a conversation with Diamond earlier Tuesday and from that conversation he hopes something may soon be done to address the issue.