Parking at RVH?

sleepymy

Is the big car park the only place where visitors can park at the Royal? I have a blue badge and the ward I'm visiting is at the front of the new building. It took me 45 mins to get from the big roundabout to a parking space today which meant I lost half my visiting time. I've been there every day since Sunday and will probably have to go every day for the rest of this week. I'm exhausted as it is (have ME) and just can't manage the walk from the back of the hospital every day on top of everything else.

SnowyOwl_2

I'd been doing quite a bit of visiting there fairly recently. I may have picked you up wrongly but I think I was using a different car park to the one you are using. I'm going on about the multi-story. I can only describe how to get there - from the end of the M1 junction go up onto Broadway,
take first right off Broadway,
come to a mini-roundabout take 2nd exit
follow the road along and go past the staff car park
the entrance to the visitors car park is then on the left under the barriers

Go up the ramp onto the top deck (there is only the ground floor and the top deck). There are some dedicated spaces up there near the covered ticket machine area. If you look at the side opposite the side you drove up you'll see some steps and a wheelchair ramp down to the road. Go down to the road and turn right - you will see the new building ahead on the other side of the road. It's only a minute or so walk.

Just as you enter the RVH new building have a look along Johnstone Road - I know there are spaces for taxis...there just might be some blue badge spaces too.

Here's a map.... sorry for all the waffle above, I'm dog tired tonight!

http://www.belfasttrust.hscni.net/trust/07royal_location.html#TopOfPage

Robothell

Unfortunately there is only one large visitors car park on the Royal site and it does get very busy in the afternoons with clinics and visiting hours running simultaneously. I think both posts above are referring to the same carpark - I would say that it's split level rather than multistorey though.

There are two ways to approach the carpark - from the Broadway entrance or from the Grosvenor / Westlink entrance. The queues tend to be shorter at the Grosvenor/Westlink approach but you have to turn right into the carpark so it probably works out the same in terms of waiting times. The alternatives are to either arrive around 1pm and wait (the queues only really get bad from 1:30pm normally) or to park outside the hospital on one of the side streets and walk in (not great if your mobility is poor).

Neither are great options to be honest but it's the best of a bad situation - parking at the RVH, both for staff and visitors, is awful and there are frequently long delays.

If I can ask one favour though - if you are visiting and are stuck in the queues please don't block the entrances/exits to the staff car parks. I have spent 30 minutes trying to get out of the staff carpark at lunchtime because inconsiderate so-and-so's closed the gaps over the exit even though I was turning the opposite direction. Two of the same people were then complaining when I arrived late to the clinic that afternoon as a direct result of this! (although they went sheepish when I told them that the reason was because they blocked me in)

sleepymy

Thanks Snowy, that's the same car park I'm talking about.

Thanks Robothell, I think I'm just going to have to get there before half one then. I'll remember about the staff car parks, I noticed a girl having to wait a while yesterday to get out.

Pretani

I used one at the Grosvenor rd entrance. Before you drive down to the main car-parks, there's an entrance in your right which the ambulances etc go to to collect patients. Drive up there and at the top is a small car park with various spaces around to park in.

and you don't have to pay at this one;)

there's also an entrance into the hospital up at that car park, it saves you walking down the hill and into the main entrance

sleepymy

Pretani wrote: »

I used one at the Grosvenor rd entrance. Before you drive down to the main car-parks, there's an entrance in your right which the ambulances etc go to to collect patients. Drive up there and at the top is a small car park with various spaces around to park in.

and you don't have to pay at this one;)

there's also an entrance into the hospital up at that car park, it saves you walking down the hill and into the main entrance

Thanks Pretani, is that round at the old building & A&E? There used to be a few disabled bays there but they've moved the A&E entrance and that's all closed off now.

Pretani

sleepymy wrote: »

Thanks Pretani, is that round at the old building & A&E? There used to be a few disabled bays there but they've moved the A&E entrance and that's all closed off now.

I'm not sure sleepymy. there was disabled bays on the side of that main entrance from Grovenor rd. I was there around 2 years ago.

I went in Grovenor rd entrance through the black cast iron gates. The main entrance to hospital was at the right and ambulances used that road. I went up there, slightly hilly and at the top was a car pk. doctors and nurses parked wherever they could also.

Maybe the entrance has changed now, but the car pk should still be there

sleepymy

I think that might be the same place Pretani, it's all closed off with building works atm.

Robothell

That carpark is currently the foundations of the next stage redevelopment of the RVH - it will soon be a new Intensive Care Unit and theatre block. Was previously for people attending the Eye Hospital.

There are a few places that you can abandon a car by the side of the road but I've seen an increase in clamping recently and there have been cars vandalised parked along Mulhouse Road etc.

Just thinking, there are sometimes places in the carpark at Children's but it's a much longer walk and tends to get busy in the early afternoon.

dmxdave

Sorry Sleepymy but having spent a few days in the Royal two weeks ago and as other posters have pointed out the parking is not good to say the least. From my ward I could see the main car park and from 10am or so the queues would build from both Broadway and Grosvenor Road entrances. It would appear that the only Blue Badge spaces would be in the main car park (for the main hospital) that means queueing to get in. Even when I was going home my OH had great difficulty even getting to the main entrance and we were blocked in for 10 minutes or so at cars waiting at a barrier that did not seem to open.
My Mother (in her 70's and a Blue Badge holder) found it easier to park on the outskirts of Belfast and bus it!

Rant over....no wonder I have hypertension

sleepymy

Thanks guys, I got into the queue at just after 1.30 today, it was much shorter but wasn't actually moving... I reckoned that we'd probably all be sitting there until some of the 1.30 visitors were leaving... after moving 8' in 10 mins I joined the 3 point turn gang and made for the Fall's where I [STRIKE]abandoned[/STRIKE] parked on a wide footpath at the Church/Chapel? with a few other cars. I left enough room for pram's/wheelchairs/virgins on donkey's and hoped the blue badge would magically deflect any tickets... happily, it did this time

Actually, the walk from the back didn't seem as long today (less stressed/knew my way this time!). I do however have a dodgy boot sensor so had visions of every spide within a 1/2 mile radius belting down the street, with their 'dodgy lock' spidey senses

I'm not allowed on to the ward until 2pm so there's no point in me arriving too early to get parked easily then having to hang about. I think it would probably be better to use the extra time to have a nap at home then walk from the back.

I wouldn't park at the Children's hospital, those poor parents are stressed enough without not being able to find a parking space themselves.

All this for a skitter of a brother who probably won't remember me being there half the time and is likely not to appreciate it anyhow :rolleyes: He's just lucky I suffer the awful affliction of unconditional love (even if he is stretching it a bit atm)