A woman has said a lack of parking at a Nottingham hospital is causing 'stress on top of stress' after her relative was fined during a cancer appointment. Sarah Harris, of Wollaton, said she and a family member spent more than half an hour looking for a spot at Nottingham City Hospital's visitor car parks before being told there was no space.
“We spent at least 40 minutes before the appointment driving around the hospital twice and there were no parking spots," the 25-year-old journalist told Nottinghamshire Live. "The parking attendants said it was all full."
However, she said one attendant let them park in the staff area as it was "hardly ever checked". "So we parked on some grass there, we weren’t blocking anybody and there was lots of space for people to get around," Ms Harris continued. "Two hours later we found we’d been fined."
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She said she was not surprised to learn they had been issued a £25 fine, but appealed the decision before it was later rejected. “I’ve heard of this happening to lots of people (not being able to park)," Ms Harris said.
"It’s not a one-time issue, they just don’t seem to do anything about it. In the future we’ll ask people to drop us off. We don’t want this to keep happening for all future appointments. It’s just more stress on top of the stress of what we’re already dealing with.”
Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH), which runs City Hospital, was approached for comment. Hospital parking issues have been well publicised in recent months.
A union representing NHS staff at Nottingham's hospitals has said current parking arrangements are nothing but a "cash-grab" on workers. A nurse of 30 years said she was stressed and ready to leave her job due to the problem.
Car parking charges were reintroduced at both City Hospital at the Queen's Medical Centre in June, with an automatic number plate recognition barrier system in place, along with boards telling motorists how many spaces are left in car parks. But people on nearby residential streets near City Hospital have been taking it upon themselves to line the streets with wheelie bins in a bid to stop people parking up to get to the hospital.
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