An NHS surgeon has been hit with a £70 car parking fine after being called in to perform a life-saving procedure.
Dr Pratap Dutta rushed in to Manchester Royal Infirmary (MRI) to carry out emergency surgery on a car crash victim at around 10.20am on Saturday June 11.
The consultant surgeon left his vehicle at level zero of the car park on Grafton Street, which serves the hospital. But on his return he learned that he was facing a £70 fine for parking on the wrong level.
Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, he said: “I was covering the major trauma surgery patients, such as crash patients, for all the hospitals within Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust that morning. It has been ridiculously busy the last few weeks, there has been a huge backlog of cases in many areas. It takes a toll on you.
“There was a road traffic collision and the patient needed life-saving surgery, so I was called in early that morning. I parked in the Grafton Street car park, it was nearly empty as you would expect at the weekend.”
Dr Dutta says NHS workers have been exempt from parking fees at MRI since the start of the pandemic and that he usually shows his ID badge to an attendant upon his arrival.
On this occasion, though, he says the Parkingeye kiosk was unstaffed so he continued on to the hospital to operate on his waiting trauma patient. When he arrived back at the car park several hours later Dr Dutta searched out a staff member to explain the situation to.
But the parking attendant informed the doctor that he would be fined for parking on level zero rather than the seventh floor where NHS staff usually park.
He said: “The parking attendant told me ‘you should have parked in the staff car park, you’re going to receive a parking fine because it’s a weekend and you shouldn’t be parking here’.
"But why should I park on level seven as long as I’m not blocking any patients and visitors. There was plenty of space, the car park has ANPR cameras and NHS staff are exempt from parking fees after the pandemic?”
A spokesperson for Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust told the Manchester Evening News: “Our Grafton Street Car Park has an area reserved for our staff, and we ask all staff to park here if there are spaces. We have a straightforward appeals process for matters such as this, and we would encourage Mr Dutta to put an appeal in, in accordance with our Trust policy.’’
Dr Dutta says he was issued with a fine in August last year after seeing three patients at MRI but was able to successfully appeal the charge as a "goodwill gesture" from Parkingeye.
He said: “It’s ridiculous to keep getting parking fines and having to keep chasing Parkingeye to waive it. There should be a better system in place than a security officer who can, at his whim, leave you with a £70 parking fine. Other hospitals within the same trust, like Wythenshawe, have a badge-operated barrier system in place.
“You’re there because there’s been a serious problem which you’re trying to focus on, and you’re not just covering one hospital either, you’re covering several. All resources are being pulled in at the moment.
“You just don’t need these parking issues on top of all of that. I would have paid the £2.50 we would have been charged before the pandemic, it would have made my life a lot easier - but the whole point is that I’m supposed to be eligible for free parking.”
Parkingeye has been approached for comment.
