Progress at centre is just what the doctor ordered
Parking woes at the multi-million pound Hunter Health Centre look set to ease with NHS Lanarkshire promising to make improvements.
Staff and patients raised concerns over charges, permits and signage at the East Kilbride facility’s multi-storey car park which opened in April and has 237 spaces.
Parking for patients is free for 90 minutes and staff who use their car for business purposes, including GPs and district nurses, have permits.
However, administration staff who were refused permits for the multi-storey claim they have been left counting the cost – paying £100-a-month to park near their place of work.
After mounting pressure from local politicians and staff representatives, NHS Lanarkshire carried out a consultation and survey into parking arrangements for the health centre.
The report’s recommendations include improving signage – externally and internally; increasing staff parking capacity by 16 spaces; allocating one additional permit per GP practice and a further review in six months.
However, patient parking will be reduced from 116 spaces to 100 spaces after the consultation found the patient car-parking area is significantly underused with less than 40 per utilisation on average and a maximum of 58.6 per cent.
Angry patients have claimed they have still been ticketed during the 90 minutes free parking due to unclear signage on payand-display meters.
But health chiefs have promised to improve promotion of free parking for patients through the media, posters, website and flyers, and improve kerb placing at the car park exit .
In a joint statement from SNP MSP Linda Fabiani and Conservative list MSP Graham Simpson, they say: “We are pleased to have made progress here.
“The decision to increase the number of passes to health centre staff and improve signage in the car park will be welcomed.
“We pressed the health board to do both these things in private discussions with them, which followed a meeting we both had with staff.
“We now want to see ongoing monitoring of car park usage, so that tweaks can be made again if necessary.”
MP Lisa Cameron said: “I have received a response from NHS Lanarkshire and although there is some progress I feel that there are still issues to be addressed.
“I am pleased that the signage is going to be revised and that there is some progress but not all issues have been answered. It would seem that 16 places are to be given to staff who do not currently have a parking place.
“The report has also said that there is one space to be allocated to each practice and with six practices located in the building it is unclear how the other 10 will be allocated.
“However, with 70 staff who were initially told there would be free parking I feel that there is further discussions and progress by NHS Lanarkshire necessary.”
Graham Johnston, NHS Lanarkshire’s head of management services, said: “The review of patient and staff car parking at Hunter Community Health Centre which we planned to undertake, was carried out over the course of November.
“The review report has been shared with centre staff and includes a series of recommendations which we propose to implement following talks with them.”