Indigo Hospital site, Multiple fines

jumbotron117

Hi everyone

My mum is a specialist nurse in a hospital in South England with a car park run by Indigo.
She commutes approx 40mins to 1hr every day and quite often gets stuck in traffic. If she's late she genuinely does not have time to pay for parking and sometimes just parks anywhere. She either needs to see sick patients or go to assist in the operating theatres.
She's racked up 14 parking tickets and has been told repeatedly by colleagues just to ignore everything
She's finally had a Wright Hassall letter for 9 of these tickets through with the classic:

Wright hassle reference xxxxx
Car parking operator : indigo
Vehicle reg: xxxxxxx
Total outstanding balance £1152

CCJ et, litigation dept etc
I understand these are not court documents and are just advisory at this stage however she is genuinely worried

Its been 15 days since they've sent their please pay within 14 day letter. Someone now has spoked her at work by saying they got threats and now she's panicking and asked me to do some research.

My questions are:
Does she have a leg to stand on - should she pay?
Should she report them to the SRA?
Should she try and complain to the hospital and/or explain the situation to the parking team to negotiate the fee down to a lower sum.


Please could anyone advise?
Many thanks
jumbotron

Fruitcake

They are not fines, they are speculative parking invoices.

Not paying for parking is not a good idea whatever the circumstances, however there is plenty of info around that say hospital parking should be free and parking companies should not profit from hospital parking.

The advice to ignore has not been given here since the law changed in 2012.

However, all is not lost. Hopefully the experts will be along soon to help. Meanwhile your Mum should complain to PALS and her Union Rep about this.
The NHS has enough doctors but is desperately short of nurses. Threatening to resign might focus the hospital administration.

beamerguy

It is a great shame that your mum listened to people who did not know what they were talking about.
As fruitcake says, she must chat to PALS and her Union Rep complaining this is affecting her work and ask them to intervene

Your mum is now a magnet for these vermin so she must be careful from now on.

G24 run a sharing operation with the money and you should ask your union rep to shed light on this to see if the hospital takes a share.
http://g24.co.uk/about-us-2-2-2-3-2-2-2/

You say it is a Southern hospital. is it under Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust where Katrina Percy was CEO. ?

Wright Hassall by the way are not the smartest card in the pack.
Read this as to why
http://parking-prankster.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=wright+hassall

As far as a complaint to the SRA about Wright Hassall, many are doing just that. It will all depend on the letter and their claims to scare you.

jumbotron117

Thanks for the advice so far. She's a specialist surgical nurse so the equivalent of a junior doctor. She's about to change hospitals so threatening to resign may not carry much weight
Sorry for the confusion but how does the Gladstone situation apply? She's been invoices by indigo - zzps - Wright hassall.
No it's actually nearer to Bristol than that (just trying to be anonymous)

pappa_golf

forget the gladstones (solicitor's) beamerguy , misread your post


contact the PALS section , ask for help and remind them of the number of times your mum and other doctors/nurses have helped them out

jumbotron117

Sorry forgive my lack of knowledge what is PALS?

beamerguy

jumbotron117 wrote: »

Thanks for the advice so far. She's a specialist surgical nurse so the equivalent of a junior doctor. She's about to change hospitals so threatening to resign may not carry much weight
Sorry for the confusion but how does the Gladstone situation apply? She's been invoices by indigo - zzps - Wright hassall.
No it's actually nearer to Bristol than that (just trying to be anonymous)

I am confusing you, sorry forget Gladstones, i am in the middle of a long letter to the SRA and right now it's about Gladstones.

However ... Wright Hassall are just as bad so read the new link in my post to read about Wright Hassall

Edna_Basher

Is it one of Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS FT's hospitals by any chance - i.e. Cheltenham General or Gloucestershire Royal?

Umkomaas

PALS - Patient Advice and Liaison Services.

Redx

google is your friend , google PALS , where the P is for PATIENT , afaik all hospitals have one

here are the Jeremy Hunt guidelines from 2 years ago , updated last october

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nhs-patient-visitor-and-staff-car-parking-principles/nhs-patient-visitor-and-staff-car-parking-principles

her union rep and hospital trust H.R. department should be trying to sort this out, according to the rules above from the NHS

tell her that whoever has been advising her to IGNORE needs to be sectioned , urgently , they could not give advice to a slug on a lettuce never mind parking matters

I doubt that these "advisors" will be around to help if these invoices go to court , nope , they will suddenly all disappear , especially if your mum lost in court and had a large judgment to pay , she needs to ditch those advisors PDQ

jumbotron117

Thanks for all the advice so far
Her plan now is to:

1. Contact her rep on Monday
2. Contact the hospital HR and complaints department on Monday
3. Contact PALS

At what point if any should she consider contacting Wright Hassall?
What can we do with information in the links you have provided re:

• gov.uk/government/publications/nhs-patient-visitor-and-staff-car-parking-principles/nhs-patient-visitor-and-staff-car-parking-principles[/url]
• parking-prankster.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=wright+hassall[/url]
  

Should we complain to the SRA now and would it make any difference to the likelihood of court proceedings?

She's just worried she'll end up in court pretty soon.