Car parks for hospital staff only weeks away
More Christchurch Hospital staff car parking at the metro sports facility site is weeks away from opening, while an existing park is being opened to students on night shifts.
The extra spaces follow staff pleas for more nearby parking due to the safety concerns of late-night shift workers. Over the past three years, there have been five reported incidents including an assault leaving a student nurse wounded in April.
In May, more than 200 temporary parks were promised for an area of land next to an existing staff car park on the metro sports facility site, to be available for one to two years.
A Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) spokeswoman said 170 additional secure parks would be offered to staff, and would start being used ‘‘over the coming weeks’’.
The parks were expected to be available until August 2019, with some available until March 2020. They would be available 24 hours a day.
The extra spaces would clear the majority of the current staff parking waiting list. The CDHB was in the process of contacting staff on the list to offer them a space.
Christchurch-based New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) organiser Christin Watson said the extra parks would have a ‘‘reasonable impact’’.
The extra parking was available earlier than expected, which was pleasing because winter was when the capacity was needed, but the NZNO was aware there would still be challenges for people parking safely, particularly in the morning.
‘‘That’s heading in the right direction. Longer term, we’re going to need different solutions because this is a short-term fix,’’ he said.
The NZNO was waiting to hear what the long-term plan would be. There was no certainty as to what it would look like, what it would cost, and who could use it, Watson said.
The CDHB spokeswoman said the frequency of guard rounds in the streets around the hospital had increased since the assault in April.
Students would be allowed to use the staff car park on Antigua St between 3.45pm and 7am. The CDHB planned to make this available before the next round of clinical placements in August.
Extra security guards stand at key points between parking areas and the hospital at shift change times, a security patrol in a car runs at morning and night shift changes, and a staff shuttle is available from key parking areas morning and night, the spokeswoman said. No further incidents had been recorded since the assault in April, she said.
In addition to the staff parks, another 30 spaces were added next to the Wilson Parking car park off Moorhouse Ave, to be managed by Wilson Parking. These will be available to the general public.
A trimmed-back metro sports facility was confirmed for the city in April after the project was paused over a $75 million budget blowout last November, leading to the axing of contractor Leighs Cockram.
A spokesman for Greater Christchurch Regeneration Minister Megan Woods said work to find a main contractor for the project was ongoing with an announcement expected in the near future.
He said the only earthworks done on the site so far were for the car parks. The main earthworks were expected to start in August, which will involve driving up to 6000 stone column piles.
‘‘We’re going to need different solutions because this is a short-term fix.’’
NZNO organiser Christin Watson