A Scots hospital have confirmed changes to a controversial parking scheme which left many frontline workers struggling to get home.
Staff who work at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh had previously been forced to queue for buses late at night, often after long shifts.
It came as NHS Lothian reintroduced a parking scheme permit designed to keep parking spaces free for patients after the pandemic.
However, Jim Crombie, Deputy Chief Executive at NHS Lothian has since announced they would be expanding car park access to all staff.
Yet this is only for those arriving on site after 11.30am and is being done on a trial basis, according to Edinburgh Live.
Images of a massive queue of hospital workers waiting to get a bus to a park and ride five miles away were released yesterday.
It came despite staff sharing images suggesting that there were a number of empty parking spaces at the hospital.
A petition had also been launched in protest of the scheme..
Previously the shuttle buses only ran until 8.15pm leaving many stuck to rely on public transport to get back to their cars in the site.
Now, there will be extra shuttle buses later at 8.45pm and 9.15pm allowing staff who finish later to get safely back to their cars.
Jim Crombie confirmed: “The staff parking permit scheme at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh was reintroduced because the site had become seriously congested due to the sheer volume of cars accessing the site each day.
"This posed a danger to staff, patients and visitors and compromised the ability of emergency blue light vehicles to access the hospitals.
“As we said we would, we are continually reviewing the parking arrangements across the campus site, considering both staff feedback and data collected by our parking teams to help shape and inform future decisions.
“From today (2 Feb) we are expanding car park access for all staff arriving on site from 11.30am onwards. This change will be on an initial trial basis to understand the impact that it will have on capacity and congestion.
“We have also extended the afternoon/evening Staff Shuttlebus timetable commencing from Thursday 3 February. This extension will provide an additional two journeys to the Park and Ride at 2045 and 2115.
“All the measures taken so far have been developed with the participation of staff and agreement of our NHS Lothian Parking Group which has seen robust involvement from our Employee Director.
"The RIE has a weekly group reviewing traffic management, including this situation, and has just launched a staff survey to seek further feedback. We continue to encourage staff to engage constructively with us, sharing any ideas they have to improve things further.”
Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond - Sign up to our daily newsletter here .
