Why is hospital parking not validated for free for patients and outpatients and charge for others?

Jeremy Sproket

As above.

Obviously it can't be free (for all) or else you'll have park and ride, commuters, students, shoppers etc. abusing the parking spots.

But the things is, even though there are charges in place, they still are being abused by the aforementioned people.

Why can't hospitals have a validation system in place whereby patients and outpatients get their parking validated for free, visitors of in-patients have their parking subsidised and eye-watering charges for people who have no business using the car park. Due to idiots misusing these spots you have genuine users often unable to park.

Take the Mater car park for example. Full to the brim on match day. The €3 or €4 per hour is no deterrent to someone going to see a match in Croke Park but an inconvenience to patients. Surely a better system would be free validation for patients and heft charges for abusers (or better yet) tow said cars away. This hospital houses important diagnostic services and cancer treatment facilities but no one cares ... as long as they can watch their GAA they don't give a sh1t.

Before anyone says cycle ..... not everyone is within cycling distance or even fit to cycle. Some drivers might be disabled and the sparse disabled spots might already be (legitimately) taken by some people in the aforementioned group.

Before anyone says use public transport.... not everyone is within the reach of pt.

Before anyone says get a taxi ... not everyone has the money to be regularly spending on fares, especially if they live further afield.

corner of hells

Public hospitals in Ireland also have a little known policy of giving free parking for life , if you drive into the hospital carpark, die in A&E and are revived .

How do I know this , I hear you ask ?

I drove in to hospital, got brought into resuscitation and never stopped breathing.

I often think of all those four euros an hour I could be saving.

Ubbquittious

Hospitals make a small fortune from parking and also have a voracious appetite for cash. You couldnt possibly give them enough money. If you pumped 200bn into CUH this year they'll need about 220bn next year just to scrape by while cutting corners

Then you have the children's hospital, billions over budget before a single patient goes in the door

crosstownk

Validation can easily be done. St. Vincent's Private Hospital offer a validation service to day care oncology patients so the parking fee is at a flat rate of €5. To avail of this you need to have your attendance at day care confirmed and your ticket validated at hospital reception before you leave for the car park.

I'm sure plenty of other hospitals offer similar so there's no reason why deterrents for non hospital use can't be implemented.

Dempo1

As it happens I had an unexpected experience of hospital car parking having made my way to A&E and ending up being admitted for a full week, lucky I got there when I did.

So, the Hospital is in Tullamore, their Policy, which I believe quite reasonable, is a maximum charge of €10 regardless of how long car parked. Obviously I was in no position to move car, could have arranged it to be collected but knowing it was only going to cost €10, I left it in the hospital car park. Sure enough, it only cost €10 for an 8 day stay.

I spoke to security manager separately and whilst they don't discount for day patients, visitors, hourly rates extremely low and there are arrangements in case of bereavement etc.

I can't comment on other hospitals but honestly Tullamore Hospital very fair re parking charges and might I add offered me excellent care.