Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Patient’s parking fury
Cancer sufferer was forced to walk after space was blocked
A CANCER patient has slammed hospital bosses after he was unable to park in a disabled bay because a skip had been left there.
The man, who did not wish to be named, was shocked to see an industrial skip had been placed in a parking bay reserved for disabled badge holders at Arbroath Infirmary.
The blue badge holder said: “I was at the infirmary for a scan to see if my cancer had come back.
“When I got to the hospital there was nowhere for me to park because the disabled bay was blocked by this skip.”
The man was then forced to find an alternative area to leave his car.
He said: “I ended up parking about five or 10 minutes away from the entrance.
“It was on the other side of the car park.”
When he pointed out the inconvenience of the skip’s location, the man said he was left disappointed by the response of hospital staff.
He said: “I was told it was put there for health and safety reasons.
“The reason was that the workers would be doing heavy lifting so they could not be walking far for that.”
Having to park further from the hospital entrance meant the patient was running late for his scan.
He said: “The appointment was scheduled for 2.30pm.
“We just about made the appointment on time after we parked our car.”
The patient said he was frustrated by the parking situation.
He said: “There are not that many disabled bays in the car park so putting the skip there does not make sense.”
A spokeswoman for NHS Tayside said: “We would like to apologise to the patient for the inconvenience this caused.
“The skip, which is part of essential building work at the infirmary, will be removed by the end of the week.”