Transit can’t top hospital parking

Re: New Civic Hospital should prioritize health care over parking, Dec. 5.

I was astounded by Coun. David Chernushenko’s column, which barely mentioned patient health-care needs. His view that we should prioritize “green” space and the LRT over patient needs is what created this whole fiasco on the Civic’s location.

He erroneously decides that emergency is the only real excuse for driving to the hospital. Anyone who has been a hospital patient will tell you the last thing they want to be is waiting for, or on, transit with an illness, a leaking catheter, after a new operation, in pain, anxiety, et cetera. This is what the majority of patients are going through when they have to go to the hospital.

For those who prefer transit, transit should adjust its routes accordingly, not the other way around. As an aside, the average drive to the hospital from Orléans is 15 minutes; try to beat that with transit. The bottom line is parking is a priority at the hospital, regardless of whether it is multi-storey or surface parking. Steven Poole, Orléans