Nurses have to leave patients every 2 hours... to move cars
Parking ‘fiasco’ after hospital cuts staff spaces
NURSES are having to leave their patients every two hours to move their cars after staff spaces in a hospital car park were axed.
The NHS staff at a community health clinic have branded the situation a “fiasco” after being forced to park in residential streets with a two-hour limit.
To avoid a £40 fine, they set their mobile phone alarms so they can drop what they are doing and dash out to move their cars in time.
One clinician said: “We all had permits before and it worked fine. Now we set alarms on our phones and staff have to get up in the middle of meetings.
“We end up seeing less patients as a result and the day is quite filled with anxiety knowing that we can’t relax at work having to move our cars.”
The Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust removed the staff parking permits so they could increase the number of spaces for paying patients and visitors by 25%. Affected staff at the hospital were given alternative spaces at car parks up to half a mile away and the cost of the permit for them is £30 a month.
But members of the 81-strong team at the Poole Community Health Clinic, which is across the road from the main hospital, are no longer being allocated any parking permits at all.
They are employed by the Dorset HealthCare University NHS Foundation Trust. Although the decision was out of the trust’s hands, staff at the clinic have criticised them for not finding a solution, instead telling staff to park in side roads nearby.
In the year 2014/15, Poole Hospital made £1.16million from its parking spaces. This figure is expected to shoot up since it increased the number of spaces by 25% due to the decision to reduce the number of staff permit places.
Managers have parking spaces at the back of the hospital. The chief executive of the Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is Debbie Fleming, who earns up to £175,000 a year.
The hospital’s medical director Dr Robert Talbot earns up to £180,000.
Their travel arrangements are not known but other senior bureaucrats remain unaffected and have been able to keep their on-site spaces.
Health clinic staff affected by the decision to withdraw permits are now arranging appointments and meetings around their parking schedule, and seeing fewer patients as a result.
Services at the clinic include a pain management unit and mental health care for children and young adults.
Stuart Lynch, a spokesman for the Dorset HealthCare University Foundation Trust, said: “We are aware of parking issues for our staff based at the Poole Community Health Clinic, and are talking to colleagues at Poole Hospital to try to resolve them.
“Patient care is our top priority and we are confident that these issues are having a minimal impact on the services we provide at the site.”