Pensioner slams hospital over misery finding parking space
Drive to find a free spot was twice as long as journey from his home
An elderly carer who spent 45 minutes driving around a hospital car park looking for a space has slammed a trust for the “unacceptable” situation. Roger Morris ended up leaving his car between two ambulances outside the main entrance of Maidstone Hospital after spending nearly an hour searching for a space on Monday morning last week.
The 75-year-old, of Thistle Hill, Minster, travelled from the Isle of Sheppey with his partner Paula Boucher, 66, to drop off a letter to her consultant.
He says he circled the Hermitage Lane hospital multiple times but the main and overflow car parks were filled to the brim. As a result of the parking misery, which the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust says it has had feedback from customers on, 50 new spaces are being added at both hospitals, making 100 in all. A spokesman said: “We want to apologise to patients and visitors who had to queue for parking spaces at Maidstone Hospital on Monday. The pressure on the car parks was caused by a faulty ticket machine which has now been fixed.
“We have listened to patient and visitor feedback and we are increasing the number of public parking spaces at both Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells hospitals.
“We are also increasing the number of drop-off and disabled parking bays and have staff monitoring the car parks entrances to support traffic flow.”
Mr Morris also claimed he and another elderly gentleman were shouted at when using a Blue Badge space.
“It was horrendous, absolutely horrendous,” he explained.
“It took us 20 minutes to get to the hospital from Sheppey and then we spent 45 minutes looking for a space.
“There was work going on at the back of the hospital and
‘It was horrendous, absolutely horrendous’
The drop-off area
what looked like staff cars were put into the overflow and filled it up.
“I ended up parking between two ambulances out front while my other half ran in. I was waiting for someone to come and have a go at me about it. “Some genius decided staff should be put in the overflow first before patients, but my way of thinking is that the hospital is for injured people and they should be put first.”
Mr Morris said he saw a “vulnerable looking” elderly man who was walking across the car park be shouted at by a member of staff.
He added: “Another poor old boy parked his car and got half way across the car park and a member of staff was shouting at him.
“He must have been in his 80s or 90s and she was shouting at him and he didn’t understand what was going on.
“I went to make a complaint but was told to write in any complaint, but I won’t be doing that as they don’t take any notice. “The whole thing was mind-blowing. It’s unacceptable and frustrating for people who need to visit the hospital.”