Yeovil District Hospital NHS Trust gets into bed with Parking Eye

dadsma

Spikeyone, did you contact the Trust? Any response from them?

RRE15

In my experience YDH have a very strong track record of putting patients and visitors first.

Previously car parking was inadequate, and cars were backing up onto the road at peak times, but with the opening of an additional car park just before Christmas right opposite the main entrance, and the removal of the barriers with the new system has certainly improved the queuing frustration.

Other changes seem to have been made which has really improved the main entrance area over the last couple of months.

I say give Yeovil a chance - they are a very highly regarded hospital at senior levels, even being heralded by NHS CEO in a national speech recently a shining light.

bod1467

Do they use the "pay on exit for the used amount of time" scheme, or the "pay on exit and guess how long you were there" scheme?

The problem is that PE usually adopt the latter, and THAT is why this is bad news for patients and visitors.

Did you even read post #6?

PS - do you work for the Trust or PE?

Coupon-mad

RRE15 wrote: »

In my experience YDH have a very strong track record of putting patients and visitors first.

Previously car parking was inadequate, and cars were backing up onto the road at peak times, but with the opening of an additional car park just before Christmas right opposite the main entrance, and the removal of the barriers with the new system has certainly improved the queuing frustration.

Other changes seem to have been made which has really improved the main entrance area over the last couple of months.

I say give Yeovil a chance - they are a very highly regarded hospital at senior levels, even being heralded by NHS CEO in a national speech recently a shining light.

They haven't a clue who they have let in - a fox among the poor chickens.

ManxRed

If Yeovil are that good, then what went wrong with their Supplier Due Diligence?

melbury

I encountered this at Yeovil Hospital last week when my husband had been rushed into A&E by ambulance.

It really threw me because I was anticipating the usual barrier/ take a ticket on arrival system that I am used to.

When I left the hospital at nearly midnight I had to try and work out what to do:( Luckily I knew what time I had arrived, so I just put in the appropriate amount, which thankfully I had on me. However, what if you don't remember exactly when you arrived?

Another thing I don't understand is what happens if you drive in and do a few laps of the car park, but can't find a space? Are you supposed to pay something just because your number plate has been photographed?

This is definitely going to confuse many really elderly people visiting the hospital - it is awful. At least with the old system you knew if the car park was full by the amount of cars queuing down the road.

System

From a FOI reply dated July 2014

Q: How much profit has been generated from car parking charges at your hospital in each year over the past three years, once overheads directly related to the staffing and maintenance of the car park has been taken out?

A: The nature of this question is subjective as “profit” can be interpreted in many different ways. The overheads selected exclude other items, such as PDC charges on land value. Therefore it is difficult to provide a profit figure for car parking that is reliable and comparable when this can be interpreted in many different ways. Furthermore, Yeovil Hospital does not account for or review car parking revenue and costs in this way or provide information in this format in our regular reports. As you can see from Question 1, we have provided you with details of revenue generated through public car parking charges.

We would add that one free parking pass is given to relatives of patients in intensive and coronary care, parents of a child on the special care baby unit and the children’s ward, patients requiring two hours or more treatment in oncology, relatives holding a bedside vigil of six hours or more, inpatients, Queenway blood transfusion patients and blue badge holders.

Q: How many car parking fines have been issued to patients in every year of the past three years?

A: None

hoohoo

RRE15 wrote: »

In my experience YDH have a very strong track record of putting patients and visitors first.

Previously car parking was inadequate, and cars were backing up onto the road at peak times, but with the opening of an additional car park just before Christmas right opposite the main entrance, and the removal of the barriers with the new system has certainly improved the queuing frustration.

Other changes seem to have been made which has really improved the main entrance area over the last couple of months.

I say give Yeovil a chance - they are a very highly regarded hospital at senior levels, even being heralded by NHS CEO in a national speech recently a shining light.

I struggle to understand how the removal of barriers has improved queuing frustration, but I have never been there. I would really welcome your local knowledge explaining this point in depth.

The main trouble with PE is that they describe their system as pay on exit (and therefore conforming to government guidelines) when it is really 'guess on exit'. No-one would be complaining* if their system told you exactly how much you owed and failed to let you enter incorrect registration numbers. This type of system is in use at Bristol, and generated zero overstays in a 3 month period. The ParkingEye guess on exit system generated an estimated £250,000 in revenue to ParkingEye from overstays in the same 3 month period at Northumbria NHS.


* or at least complaining so much

melbury

I am still confused about what happens if you drive around the car park but there are no parking spaces so you have to leave. Presumably your number plate has been photographed on entry??

Marktheshark

I wonder if they informed them there is a court of appeal case on going which could pull down their whole plan.
Then there is a judicial revue and house of lords left after that.
I bet they forget to mention this when flashing the cash to the suits that think they own public property.