PCN Barnet hospital

sandbags89

Hello all,

Back again unfortunately with a PCN from Royal Free Barnet car park - issued by ParkingEye villains.

Just recently become a father and the pregnancy was a little complicated so I've had tonnes of hospital appointments back and forth to a couple hospitals. Couples weeks back had to take the baby to child A&E advised by midwife on a home visit. They kept us for couple nights then discharged and gave us a check up appointment couple days later. 

When I attended this appointment the car park was rammed, cars queuing everywhere fighting over parking spots that rarely became available. I was driving in circles for like 15 mins, both me and the Mrs stressed that were gonna miss the appointment to get baby checked out. When you go to an appointment it seems they see you no earlier that 45mins after your appointment was scheduled, but if your 10 mins late you lose the appointment! (Probably not the case with a baby appointment, but I was stressed and sleep deprived). So I just said F it and parked in the next safest spot I could, which wasn't a designated spot. Had the appointment, come back to ticket on the windscreen of course. 

Now I recall from last time there is a process to follow but I can't seem to find it. My computer doesn't seem to load up the forum properly to find the sticky thread. The last time I had dispute with Tesco's private parking company and managed to resolve it by emailing CEO as an angry customer. I've emailed Royal Free CEOs and not had any response yet, not sure if I will. 

As I mentioned, I've been back and forth to the hospitals a shitload of times over the last 6 months or so, racking up parking costs. Some days having to pay a tenner a time. The last couple of months I spent about £50 quid on parking. I explained all this in the email and also made them aware of Government requirements for free hospital parking that I found online:

quoted from my email...

" “Frequent outpatient attenders

Parking will be provided free to all outpatients who attend hospital for an appointment at least 3 times within a month and for an overall period of at least 3 months. A ‘month’ is defined as a period of 30 days.”

According to this I should have eligible for free parking, but nobody informed us nor is it sign-posted anywhere to inform the public. July-Sept we had 14 appointments. When I discovered this I questioned the hospital receptionist who had no knowledge of this mandatory government rule. The only offer she had was a discounted parking fee of £13 a month if you are admitted to hospital for over a month.

“Parents of sick children staying overnight

The parent of a child in hospital overnight is a parent or guardian of a child or young person, under 18 years of age, who is admitted as an inpatient at hospital overnight.”

We were required admitted to hospital for over 36 hours on 2 separate occasions due to health concerns of our new-born baby. The first overnight stay I was concerned about parking as I also had to make trips in and out to feed pets at home. I spoke to a different receptionist at the time who said I could pay £10.20 via the Pay by Phone app and this should allow me to stay the whole time whilst coming and going as necessary. I did this the first time – I am hoping not to receive a fine in the post. Second occasion I was going to Child A&E and the app wasn’t working so I had to pay £10 each day via the parking machines.

“Disabled people

A disabled person is a holder of a valid Blue Badge attending hospital as a patient or visitor or is a disabled person employed by the hospital trust. Disabled patients and visitors receive free parking for the duration of their attendance at, or visit to, the hospital.”

Apparently this also could have applied as 1 of the vehicles has a disabled badge holder but we were unaware free parking was available at the time.

Most frustrating of all, 1 of the vehicles was issued with a ‘Parking charge notice’ today for apparently parking incorrectly. The driver was attending another health check appointment for the baby and the car park was full. Driver was circling for 15minutes trying to find a space. They quickly managed to park it somewhere safe and run in not to miss the appointment only to come back to find a ticket on the windscreen. The vehicle was parked safely, not obstructing any access routes, vehicles, or pedestrians. If there are no designated spaces available what are patients expected to do?

I would like to know why the public are not informed about eligibility for free parking and why the NHS staff are not even educated on the topic. Based on these government requirements I should be refunded partially for my parking costs. However my main concern is to resolve this absurd PCN.

Mr Connelly, I would kindly request that you instruct Parking Eye Ltd. to cancel this PCN. NHS are the landowners and as CEO you have the power to instruct them not to pursue it any further. I am merely the registered keeper and do not want to start receiving threatening letters from these bullying private companies demanding payments, I have enough on my plate without them causing me more stress."

Anyway, so thats the situation and where I'm at so far. I'm not paying these scammers, just need a refresher on the best course of action. It used to be that you just ignore the !!!!!!. Had a few from Mac Ds back in the day from ParkingEye.

Thanks in advance, apologies for the text overload.

Coupon-mad

Very good. In my experience you will get a reply from the Royal Free.  Not always positive but I've always had a response.

sandbags89

Coupon-mad said:

Very good. In my experience you will get a reply from the Royal Free.  Not always positive but I've always had a response.

Fingers crossed. Do you happen to recall how long it took for them to get back to you?

Coupon-mad

A couple of weeks but it was years ago.

sandbags89

Right, coming up to 3 weeks no, no reply. Not sure if it's gonna come at all. I re-sent the email to some other alternate emails I managed to find. 
Got another PCN in the post today for the same date but different ref. no. Not sure if its a different PCN altogether. 

Anyway, assuming nobody gets back to me from NHS, what should my next step be?

Coupon-mad

Email the CEO of the NHS Trust by name.

sandbags89

Yep I've emailed every source I could find:

johnconnolly@nhs.net
england.ce@nhs.net

beh-tr.ceomailbox@nhs.net
bcfpals@nhs.net rf-tr.bcfcomplaints@nhs.net

sandbags89

Right I've had a response from the complaints email saying they're looking into it, but could take a couple months apparently. I'm wondering whether I should contact parking-eye in the meantime before the appeal window ends?

Coupon-mad

Yes and show them the email exchange (upload copies) and tell them to cancel this PCN to save the Hospital hearing from your MP, which is your next plan.

Lean in PEye a bit.  They'll cancel. Hospital contracts are lucrative. They won't want to annoy the Royal Free/Barnet.

sandbags89

may have some positive news. Went to access the parking eye website to check info on what they are actually giving me a PCN for and discovered that it says outstanding balance £0.00. I also checked the ref. no for the other physical yellow ticket PCN i received and that also says £0.00 balance. So it seems the complaints department may have resolved them both already. I've screenshotted them and will wait to see if I receive anything else about these.

Coupon-mad

That's great! PLAN A STRIKES AGAIN.