A patient has called car parking at Nottingham City Hospital 'ridiculous' after it took him 45 minutes to get a spot for an outpatient appointment - to be told it was cancelled and then rescheduled in four months' time. John Billett, 55, from Kegworth, had an appointment to check on a growth on the back of his neck at 9.30am on Wednesday (April 27).
At first, John had visited his GP for something entirely different when he then asked about the growth. Although he has had it for a number of years, it has continued to grow, to what John describes is now the size of a ping-pong ball. His GP referred him around six months ago for an appoint at City Hospital.
John drove from his home to the hospital and arrived at 9.15am, 15 minutes before his appointment. But when he got there, he says there were no spaces at all for him to park.
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John says every car park, including all of the smaller ones as well as individual car parking spaces, were full, with cones blocking entry to them because they were at capacity. He said he drove around the hospital grounds three times in the hope that another vehicle would have left.
Eventually, John explained he had to wait on the road outside of the Yellow car park. A vehicle or two eventually left the car park, and John said he managed to get in and park up at 10am, 45 minutes after he arrived.
But he explained the car park was in the opposite corner to where his appointment was, meaning he had to walk a further 15 minutes to get to where he needed to be. John, who works offshore on oil rigs which he has done for his entire career, had been waiting around six months for the appointment, and says, through no fault of his own, he was 45 minutes late for it.
John said: "The parking situation there was just crazy. After the third loop of the grounds, I just thought this is ridiculous." As John was so late for his appointment, after giving his details to the receptionist and a nurse, he said he was told the consultant he had booked in to see had already left. He was told the consultant could not come back, and to reschedule the appointment.
John was told the earliest available appointment possible would be on August 17. He said he couldn't believe it when he heard how long the wait would be. John said: "I was in a state of shock, I didn't know what to feel or say. I'd been waiting for so long for it, I'd got here in time, but couldn't get parked which means I missed it, to then be told 'see you in another four months'.
"I was exasperated, I thought 'what am I meant to do?' In the grand scheme of things, I'm aware what I was there for was not life threatening or urgent, but it highlights the difficulty with both parking there and the length of wait times to see someone, that's the frustrating thing, and surely I can't be the only one this has happened to. There were others driving around, too.
"I was told to arrive earlier in the future, but it says on the letter I was given not to turn up more than five minutes before my appointment. Surely there can be some kind of system to give people replacement appointments sooner than being kicked down the road for four months."
John also has a skin condition called psoriasis, which can cause skin to build up in bumpy red patches. He attends Queen's Medical Centre around every two months for this, and says parking there is not such an issue. Nottingham University Hospitals Trust, which runs the QMC and City Hospital, has been contacted for comment.
