HOSPITAL CAR PARKING BACK ON AGENDA
BETTER TECHNOLOGY MAY BE PART OF THE ANSWER AT THE LRI
NHS bosses have set out plans to try to sort out some of the parking problems at Leicester’s hospitals.
A shortage of spaces and long queues are among the issues which affect patients and staff, particularly at Leicester Royal Infirmary, where traffic jams are a common sight along Havelock Street.
There are also concerns congestion will get worse around the infirmary as University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust proceeds with its £450 million plan to move more acute services and maternity care to the city centre site.
Trust director of estates and facilities Darryn Kerr said: “We fully understand the challenges we have about access to sites.
“There is rarely a day that goes by that I don’t have to talk to somebody about car parking.”
Mr Kerr said he was aware of the difficulties, but said various measures were being planned to improve the situation.
“One of the big problems is the technology”, he said. “Anyone who has queued for half an hour in Havelock Street will know how frustrating that is.
“It isn’t because there are not the spaces, it’s because the old barrier system almost works on a one-in, one-out basis.
“The good news is we are planning quite a significant investment programme now, at the latter end of this year, and into next year around all our existing car parks. We are looking at automatic number plate recognition systems, we are looking at the use of quick response codes.”
Mr Kerr said the trust would be looking at how much car parking was needed, particularly at the infirmary site and Glenfield Hospital.
He said: “We will need a different dynamic at the Royal, when we will have a lot of people coming for maternity purposes.
“We will need more drop-off areas at the front of maternity than we would have historically.
“We are looking at more decking at the Havelock car park and new multi-storey car parks at the Glenfield.”
By decking, the Mercury understands that another layer of parking may be constructed, but falling short of a multi-storey.
“At the Glenfield, we are going to change the structure of the car parking so all of our patients are parked as close to the building as possible and moving staff to the rear,” said Mr Kerr.
“We will never have enough car parking spaces for everybody, that’s the reality and the position the NHS is in, but it is clear we need investment in technology.
Mr Kerr said the longer-term aim was to make it easier for people to get to hospitals by other means than cars.
He said the trust was working with a specialist transport company and the city and county councils to work on alternative transport options for patients.
These include the upcoming electric bike hire scheme the city council intends to launch next early year and better bus connections.