Parking charge at a hospital

Huddy31

My wife had a total knee replacement on 26th September. The nearest car park had about 10 disabled bays and the same number of drop off 30 minute bays so on the day of the op there was no problem as we parked in a disabled bay and displayed her blue badge.
The following day I was under the impression the she was going to be discharged. I waited for 15 minutes for a disabled bay but in the end used a drop off bay as I thought we'd return within 30 minutes.
On the ticket the car parking attendant's ID number is illegible. It says that he'had reasonable cause to believe that there had been a breach'and that the breach was 'parked in a drop off point', not that I had breached the 30 minutes rule.
It became clear to me that she was not ready for discharge so I returned to the car park to find a parking charge notice. The ticket says the car was seen at 14.07 and it was issued at 14.42.
I have appealed to UKPC and this has been rejected. I need advice as to whether I have any chance If I appeal to POLA or that I have no case at all.
BTW, after getting the ticket I moved the car to a multi-storey quite a distance away.
When she was discharged later that day the attendant refused to let me out of the car park as my wife was not in the car. I explained to him that due to having a total knee replacement she could not possibly walk over to the mult-storey on crutches as she was in a great deal of pain. He then said that the nurses should put her in a wheelchair and wheel her over. He became very nasty and threatened me with a £1000 fine. He refused to give me his name. I returned to the ward and the nurses were furious with his attitude. They kind of let rip at him and in the end he let me out so that I could pick her up closer to the entrance.
This has nothing to do with the original ticket but his horrible unsympathetic attitude has really made me angry.
My wife thinks I should just pay the ticket but I think that I did have mitigating circumstances and to get a ticket after 5 minutes after stay seems most unfair. I'm actually doubtful that as much as 30 minutes had even passed.
Sorry for the long ramble, any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks.

Umkomaas

I have appealed to UKPC and this has been rejected. I need advice as to whether I have any chance If I appeal to POLA or that I have no case at all.

You have every chance of winning at POPLA, as long as you use the right points of argument. None of which you have put forward so far!

In making your initial appeal, if you've identified the driver in what you've said in the appeal, then one POPLA plank of your appeal is lost, but not fatal.

You need to read the NEWBIES FAQ sticky, post #3 about how to construct a good POPLA appeal. Draft one up, after doing plenty of reading first, and let us see it for critique.

Also look at some recent 'UKPC POPLA' appeals (last 3-4 months) and learn what other people have used in winning (or losing). Use the highlighted keywords in the search engine.

HOW TO USE THE FORUM SEARCH FUNCTION:

Hit your 'Back' button to get back to the forum thread list. On the bar just above the threads you'll see the 'Search' function. Click on the 'Advanced Search' button and on the following page place your keyword(s) in the 'Search By Keyword(s)' and make sure the 'Show Results As' button (at the foot of the window) is changed from 'Threads' to 'Posts'.

Then, on Monday, get onto PALS (Patient Advice and Liaison Service) at the hospital, explain to them the case history and ask that they intervene and get UKPC to cancel. Works often.

HTH.

KeithP

Have you asked PALS (Patient Advice and Liaison Service) at the hospital to fix this?

Surely with the backing of nurses, PALS will sort this out.

Have you seen the NHS patient, visitor and staff car parking principles?

Particularly this bit:

Contracted-out car parking

NHS organisations are responsible for the actions of private contractors who run car parks on their behalf.

Huddy31

I have already contacted PALS who say that they are unable to help regarding the ticket but suggested that I complain about the attendants behaviour when he refused to let me out of the multi-storey. I will do some more research. Advising me that the reasons I have stated aren't good enough is helpful to know.

MistyZ

Hmmm. The attendant's behaviour was appalling and therefore an easy problem for PALS to focus their rather useless sympathy on. Though clearly a strongly worded complaint to the hospital specifically about the attendant is in order.

Overall, it would seem that there was considerable difficulty locating a suitable parking space for collecting a patient from hospital. It's not immediately obvious to me how a taxi driver would have handled it either so perhaps the hospital should have sent her home by ambulance .... I'm sure they have plenty of ambulances hanging around doing nothing.

I'd suggest trying PALS again absolutely emphasising the absurdity of the situation and the frankly disgusting way the driver was treated while trying to avoid getting hammered by the parking company. It's not just about one particularly nasty attendant but the whole parking set-up which snares well-meaning people. You cannot use mitigation such as reference to good intentions and the procedure the patient had had and so on in a POPLA appeal, but you can bring all of this reality to bear in a strongly worded letter to PALS. I'd deliver it by hand and phone if a response didn't ensue within a day or two.

Umkomaas

^^ Super advice ^^.

You've got the hang of this stuff MistyZ.