Staff have hit out over changes to car parking at Swansea's Morriston Hospital which some fear will lead to fines, but Swansea Bay Health Board, which runs the facility has insisted the move will lead to more available spaces.
A new contractor is taking over the running of the car park, leading to new signs being erected. The change means people working at the hospital will need to apply for e-permits, and hand-held computers and CCTV cameras will be used to monitor use of the car park.
Fines can be issued for mis-use of the e-permits, but the health board has insisted they would only be used when "absolutely necessary". It said it was aware of concerns from staff, and that meetings were planned to discuss the changes and allow people to share their views. Get Swansea stories straight to your inbox with our newsletter.
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A staff member, who did not want to be named, said: "The place is absolutely ridiculous with absolutely nowhere for anyone to park after 9am with around 400 spaces extra needed. Staff and the NHS are going through enough without the extra stress and hassle of worrying about a parking fine because we are worried about where we are forced to squeeze in to park and what area. It is now going to be designated spaces for staff and visitors which is going to cause absolute havoc for everyone, making even less spaces left for people.
"It's gotten so much worse over the years, you would think they would have sorted out the major issues with parking problems, needing more areas to park like a new multi-story car park is what is needed, but that was rejected years ago. Many staff are furious with this new company being brought in and I personally think it is absolutely disgusting putting extra strain on the NHS. We all have a hard enough job to do without this on top of it."
A spokeswoman for Swansea Bay University Health Board said it had employed the services of a car park contractor at Morriston Hospital for more than 15 years, with the majority of the terms and conditions for car parking remaining the same over that time.
A statement read: "These apply to both staff and visitors. The contractor provides the back office function only and their employees do not spend any time on site. We have our own staff to provide the on-site operational management of parking and issuing of any penalty charge notices in accordance with health board policy. Also, we have always had signs concerning parking on site as they are a legal requirement. The difference in the last few months is we have employed another company to carry out the back office work as the previous contract expired. The new contractor has erected new signs with its name and details on, which it is legally required to do.
“Staff have been required to apply for hard-copy permits in the past and these are now being changed to e-permits, with these changes already having been rolled out at other health board sites, including Singleton Hospital. We have arranged meetings with Morriston Hospital staff to discuss the forthcoming changes on this site and to give them the opportunity to have their views heard. We hope a benefit of the e-permit system under the new contract will be to give us more up-to-date information about the usage of the car park - with the use of hand-held computers and CCTV cameras - which will improve space availability and utilisation of the car park.
"We are aware of staff concerns over fines, but we do take a pragmatic approach to the management of what is a very busy car park. Fines are only issued when absolutely necessary, such as when disabled spaces are taken up by those who do not have a blue badge and where parking on corners or in non-designated spaces creates a hazard for pedestrians and other drivers.
“It’s not unusual for large hospitals like Morriston to have parking issues and we are aware of staff concerns. As such, discussions are ongoing about the number of spaces on site and we are also looking at improving opportunities for sustainable travel, such as walking, cycling or using public transport to help reduce the number of cars on site.”
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