hospital parking fees

mvl · 13-10-2018 9:56pm #1

So I am not as aware about the situation in the country - said I'd ask here.

This week I was in A&E in Portiuncula/Ballinasloe, and to my surprise there is now paid 24h APCOA parking - it appears not all HSE is aware of this, as their website has not been updated
https://www.hse.ie/eng/services/list/3/acutehospitals/hospitals/portiuncula/car-parking.html
Car parking is available at the Hospital. The current car parking charge is €2, and does not have a time restriction. All money raised goes directly back to patient and visitor services.

But note that the new APCOA rates are listed here https://www.apcoaconnect.ie/locationDetail/?id=1370

So this did not go well for me as a patient, tbh (I don't need an extra worry when I get in A&E / waiting time was 6 hours for me that nite, but I could have ended up being transferred to a different hospital).
So, I can understand the original fee, or how a time based fee can be applied to any service provider; but I fail to understand why they come up with these charges to A&E patients, this is not good enough IMO.

So my question is: have you seen similar in other hospitals in the country?
Does anyone know if there are any petitions to get this changed ?

elperello · 13-10-2018 10:06pm

It's a disgrace that they have their hand out to sick people and their relatives for money.

This petition is for cancer patients.

https://www.cancer.ie/advocacy/current-campaigns/park-the-charges

coathanger · 13-10-2018 10:06pm

Hubby was in A&E in Wexford & admitted for 10days, first 20mins was free, then upto 3hours was €4 , 1 pay machine for the whole hospital & it didn’t take notes,an added stress which wasn’t needed. Asked the nurses/doctors was the money going back into the hospital, they were unsure but didn’t think so ...

Fr_Dougal · 13-10-2018 10:19pm

The revenue goes straight to the hospital to provide services:

http://www.thejournal.ie/hospital-car-park-fees-ireland-3367778-May2017/

mvl · 13-10-2018 10:37pm

Fr_Dougal wrote: »

The revenue goes straight to the hospital to provide services:

http://www.thejournal.ie/hospital-car-park-fees-ireland-3367778-May2017/

In this case it sounds like the parking service is outsourced to a private company for some reason.

The machines only accept change, and the change distributor from the hospital was broken. - Was not sure if was safe to pay online; when asking staff, nobody knew anything about online.

LaLa2004 · 13-10-2018 10:46pm

Parking in Crumlin Children's Hospital is payable by the hour.

That's if you're lucky enough to get into the car park. Otherwise you park on the narrow streets in the area & walk.

elperello · 13-10-2018 10:56pm

I had to take an Out-Patient to Barrington's Private Hospital in Limerick last year.
They give out free tickets at reception to a multi-storey car park nearby that they have an arrangement with.

So a private hospital can afford to give free parking but public hospitals make sick people pay.

PirateShampoo · 13-10-2018 11:16pm

LaLa2004 wrote: »

Parking in Crumlin Children's Hospital is payable by the hour.

That's if you're lucky enough to get into the car park. Otherwise you park on the narrow streets in the area & walk.

That needs to be fixed it's a complete nightmare for buses and trucks going about thier daily business around there.

beauf · 13-10-2018 11:22pm

They are all a nightmare for parking.

Blanch has a coin based system. Perfect when you arrive and theres no change anywhere and the machine for change are broken.

Its the perfect example of why the soul of this country is broken. By greed.

Atlantic Dawn · 13-10-2018 11:25pm

Something has to keep the basket case HSE running.

KevinCavan · 13-10-2018 11:26pm

Have consultants gotten a slice of the parking fees in the past?

elperello · 13-10-2018 11:40pm

At every hospital you will see a section of the car park usually near the building populated with Audis, BMW, Mercs etc. That is the consultants car park and they don't pay.

13-10-2018 11:58pm

An awful lot of people, most obviously in Dublin with all its buses and the like, who drive to hospitals could get public transport instead. But then they'd have nothing to be giving out about.

I parked for free on one of the side streets in Crumlin, in Tesco Merrion in Vincent's and so on. The hospitals need the money, and will continue to need it until a government decides to do an Éamonn Rothwell/Irish Ferries on the HSE and get rid of c. 60,000 unnecessary jobs.

LaLa2004 · 14-10-2018 12:07am

[Deleted User] wrote: »

An awful lot of people, most obviously in Dublin with all its buses and the like, who drive to hospitals could get public transport instead. But then they'd have nothing to be giving out about.

Getting 2 buses to Crumlin with a child doesn't work for me. Especially when trying to get into work after appointments.

elperello · 14-10-2018 12:10am

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/health/tax-on-sick-1m-a-month-collected-in-parking-charges-at-public-hospitals-36694545.html

The parking fees raise €13 million per year.

The HSE total budget for 2018 is €14.5 billion. (I know that is not just for hospitals).

For a a tiny fraction of their spending they are putting sick people and their visitors through all that stress and expense that many can't afford.

Chiparus · 14-10-2018 12:11am

KevinCavan wrote: »

Have consultants gotten a slice of the parking fees in the past?

I dont think so, there were rumours that consultants used private money to pay to build a multi-storey car park in a hospital.

But so what, its their money thay can do what they want with it.

up for anything · 14-10-2018 12:17am

elperello wrote: »

At every hospital you will see a section of the car park usually near the building populated with Audis, BMW, Mercs etc. That is the consultants car park and they don't pay.

Consultants come and go between hospitals and their private consulting rooms and if they had to drive around looking for parking space it would be a very poor use of their time. I'm very grateful that the consultant orthopaedic surgeon who was called in at 2am to operate on my son, who had Compartment Syndrome, didn't have to piss around looking for a parking space and then walk from the car park to the building because time really was of the essence for my son to be operated on to prevent major damage to or loss of his arm.

On the other hand, my mother (80 years old at the time) a few years back had a scheduled appointment in an outpatients clinic in Waterford Regional Hospital. The car park there isn't run by the HSE or hospital. It's a private concern. Anyhow when she went to pay her car park ticket of €4 she realised she'd left home without her purse and mobile. She also by then realised that she was coming down with some lurgy and running a temperature and feeling pretty shook. All she wanted to do was get home and onto the couch with a Lemsip. She pressed the call button on the ticket machine and told the guy who answered her story and said she'd pay it the next day if he could let her out. He told her no way and that she'd have to find the €4 before she could get out of the car park. She said that she had no way to get it. At the time she lived out in the country about 17 miles away. The chap was pretty rude and told her that if he was to fall for every sob story no one would ever pay their parking fees and 'hung up'.

She sat in the reception area nearly crying and then asked a friendly looking lady could she borrow her phone. She phoned her sister, equally elderly, who lived about 25 miles away. She had to drive in, give my Mum the car park money and then drive home again while my mother drove herself home. For four fucking euro! Because little old ladies are constantly skipping out on paying their four euro? I was in there a week later and bearded one of the hospital admin on the subject and read them the riot act. I was promised that they'd talk to the car park firm and make sure that no one was ever treated like that again. i have my doubts.

Mrs OBumble · 14-10-2018 12:36am

elperello wrote: »

I had to take an Out-Patient to Barrington's Private Hospital in Limerick last year.
They give out free tickets at reception to a multi-storey car park nearby that they have an arrangement with.

So a private hospital can afford to give free parking but public hospitals make sick people pay.

Cost of parking is built into the fee you pay the private hospital for treatment.

Hospitals are there to treat sick people, not to store their vehicles for free.

If hospital car parks were free they'd be full of the cars of workers from surrounding businesses.

Guy:Incognito · 14-10-2018 12:42am

LaLa2004 wrote: »

Getting 2 buses to Crumlin with a child doesn't work for me. Especially when trying to get into work after appointments.

If it was free it'd be full of people using it as a park and ride for work anyway so thered be even less space for people actually using the hospital. People are ***** and only out for themselves. The fact it's a hospital car park wouldn't bother them in the slightest.

mvl · 14-10-2018 1:09am

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Cost of parking is built into the fee you pay the private hospital for treatment.

Hospitals are there to treat sick people, not to store their vehicles for free.

If hospital car parks were free they'd be full of the cars of workers from surrounding businesses.

While I agree that fees need to be paid, this particular parking service has been outsourced to a 3rd party (APCOA) , it is not maintained by the hospital anymore. Same company has in same town another parking where they charge 3.5 EUR/day, while the hospital parking day is 8 EUR/day.
Sounds to me the hospital parking is premium location for them to get more money from sick people.
= smaller towns around Ballinasloe also have APCOA fees of 3.5 EUR/day.

But that evening, issue was that I had no where to get the coins to pay for an outdated coin based only payment system, after the first 4 hours. Its worse cause the waiting times in A&E are outside of patients control, and the parking needs to be validated while in the waiting room; its not like I'd go to a shopping centre, get the parking ticket and pay on exit with coins/notes or card.

up for anything - your mum story is so sad; it doesn't sound like it is happening in Ireland

ted1 · 14-10-2018 1:13am

mvl wrote: »

While I agree that fees need to be paid, this particular parking service has been outsourced to a 3rd party (APCOA) , it is not maintained by the hospital anymore. Same company has in same town another parking where they charge 3.5 EUR/day, while the hospital parking day is 8 EUR/day.
Sounds to me the hospital parking is premium location for them to get more money from sick people.
= smaller towns around Ballinasloe also have APCOA fees of 3.5 EUR/day.

But that evening, issue was that I had no where to get the coins to pay for an outdated coin based only payment system, after the first 4 hours. Its worse cause the waiting times in A&E are outside of patients control, and the parking needs to be validated while in the waiting room; its not like I'd go to a shopping centre, get the parking ticket and pay on exit with coins/notes or card.

up for anything - your mum story is so sad; it doesn't sound like it is happening in Ireland

Should sick people be driving to the hospital ? If someone can drive there it’s Hardly an emergency

questionmark? · 14-10-2018 1:19am

up for anything wrote: »

Consultants come and go between hospitals and their private consulting rooms and if they had to drive around looking for parking space it would be a very poor use of their time. I'm very grateful that the consultant orthopaedic surgeon who was called in at 2am to operate on my son, who had Compartment Syndrome, didn't have to piss around looking for a parking space and then walk from the car park to the building because time really was of the essence for my son to be operated on to prevent major damage to or loss of his arm.

On the other hand, my mother (80 years old at the time) a few years back had a scheduled appointment in an outpatients clinic in Waterford Regional Hospital. The car park there isn't run by the HSE or hospital. It's a private concern. Anyhow when she went to pay her car park ticket of €4 she realised she'd left home without her purse and mobile. She also by then realised that she was coming down with some lurgy and running a temperature and feeling pretty shook. All she wanted to do was get home and onto the couch with a Lemsip. She pressed the call button on the ticket machine and told the guy who answered her story and said she'd pay it the next day if he could let her out. He told her no way and that she'd have to find the €4 before she could get out of the car park. She said that she had no way to get it. At the time she lived out in the country about 17 miles away. The chap was pretty rude and told her that if he was to fall for every sob story no one would ever pay their parking fees and 'hung up'.

She sat in the reception area nearly crying and then asked a friendly looking lady could she borrow her phone. She phoned her sister, equally elderly, who lived about 25 miles away. She had to drive in, give my Mum the car park money and then drive home again while my mother drove herself home. For four fucking euro! Because little old ladies are constantly skipping out on paying their four euro? I was in there a week later and bearded one of the hospital admin on the subject and read them the riot act. I was promised that they'd talk to the car park firm and make sure that no one was ever treated like that again. i have my doubts.

So you read the riot act to a member of the administration staff in the hospital who has zero say and zero influence over the car parking charges. Sure aren't you a great! So brave and tough of you!

mvl · 14-10-2018 1:20am

ted1 wrote: »

Should sick people be driving to the hospital ? If someone can drive there it’s Hardly an emergency

and you are a qualified doctor to state that ?

I was accepted as emergency as sent by my GP, and there was no one else to drive me to the hospital. buseireann is useless at night time.

Rubberchikken · 14-10-2018 1:22am

Hospitals like cuh in cork should have a multi story car park.
Ridiculous price to.park there thats if you can find a space.

beauf · 14-10-2018 2:00am

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Cost of parking is built into the fee you pay the private hospital for treatment.

Hospitals are there to treat sick people, not to store their vehicles for free.

If hospital car parks were free they'd be full of the cars of workers from surrounding businesses.

Car parks are full and are all the surrounding areas are full, all the time. Even when there are no surrounding businesses like Blanch.

The mater on Match days is full. If you need to visit someone in the hospital do it after the match is over. The old car park sits empty, mocking you as drive around and around.

Temple street has no parking. problems with every hospitals parking. James already has problems even before they've built the new hospital.

None of this is done to facilitate sick people.

beauf · 14-10-2018 2:08am

ted1 wrote: »

Should sick people be driving to the hospital ? If someone can drive there it’s Hardly an emergency

Lots of people have valid reason to be at the hospital and not be an emergency?

Public transport is not reason for abysmal parking at hospitals and expensive parking.

beauf · 14-10-2018 2:10am

Deleted User wrote: »

An awful lot of people, most obviously in Dublin with all its buses and the like, who drive to hospitals could get public transport instead. But then they'd have nothing to be giving out about. ...

Yes I could make a 3hr round trip instead of driving and taking 1hr.

Makes perfect sense.

Mrs OBumble · 14-10-2018 2:25am

mvl wrote: »

and you are a qualified doctor to state that ?

I was accepted as emergency as sent by my GP, and there was no one else to drive me to the hospital. buseireann is useless at night time.

Last time I was sick enough to be sent to A&E by my GP, I caught a taxi. Because I was sick enough not be be safe on the road. And would have been even less capable of driving after the surgery. Even if I was capable of driving home, it would have been incredibly self of me to have my car occupy a hospital car-parking space for the three days I was in there.

I have some sympathy for immediate families of in-patients in emergency intensive-care situations - reckon it would be reasonable for them to be given free parking tickets from the ward. That's all.

As for outsourcing: that's what hospitals do. They let a tender for companies to do all the non- healthcare buts of running a hospital, like catering, cleaning, laundry, parking. Sometimes the company that wins the tender is able to make a profit and only gives a % of the takings to the hospital. Other times they hand over all the parking fees, and the hospital pays them a set fee for doing the job.

beauf · 14-10-2018 2:33am

I don't think its possible to reply to such daft examples.

G-Man · 14-10-2018 2:46am

Oh woe is me, they built a 100 million hospital, they treated me for a week with top class surgeons, caring nurses hi tech medicine and thousands of euros of drugs...and now the shower want 4eur for looking after my car.. Well I'm never going back there.

end of the road · 14-10-2018 2:47am

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Last time I was sick enough to be sent to A&E by my GP, I caught a taxi. Because I was sick enough not be be safe on the road. And would have been even less capable of driving after the surgery. Even if I was capable of driving home, it would have been incredibly self of me to have my car occupy a hospital car-parking space for the three days I was in there.

sure, but your situation is your situation and won't necessarily apply to the poster who you replied to.

hospital parking fees

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