It isnt so easy for them. Likely even you have noticed that few actually make an appointment before visiting the supermarket and even if they did give you a token at the checkout that allows you to get out of the carpark for free, it would be too easy for anyone to give the token to someone who wanted to use their carpark for their commute etc.
I would love to see your maths for that or even a population map of the area showing the before and after service location and use. .
The tesco in west bromwich doesn't supply free parking for everyone. they have ANPR cameras and pay terminals for those that don't shop in tesco and paid enforcers. If they didn't there wouldn't be any spaces for customers. Its the same at Lidl but without the machines.
It depends on where they are, if they are near a railway station they get commuters parking there all day.
If they are in the middle of nowhere with no public transport then maybe they would only get patients, staff and visitors. But who wants a hospital in the middle of nowhere?
It is not easy to give tokens out to people that arrive there, a commuter only has to say they are a visitor to fool it.
I have never seen visitors make appointments either. You can't even say they will only be there during visiting hours as I have been on wards where nobody sticks to the visiting times and the staff don't expect them too either.
The reception desk has closed well before too.
Lincoln City Hospital is a bus ride away from the City centre. Buses every 50 minutes during the day but the last one leaves the hospital at 1810. Another route that passes nearby has departures at 1825, 1855 & 1948 (last bus FROM the City at
1900).So, anybody needed to go to A&E in the evening or visit an inpatient either needs a car or a taxi.
Car parking costs £1.70 for the first hour. For 61 minutes or longer it goes up to a swingeing £4.20 (up to 4 hours).
Not if the commuters can't get out at the end of the day without a token.
Normally a visitor goes to the local reception desk at the relevant ward and tells the staff who they have come to visit. The staff then tell them where the patient is (they often change beds) and if it is okay to visit immediately or if they need to wait for some reason. They can simply hand over a token at the same time.
Commuters (unless someone happens to have a friend or relative in at the time) are not going to know the name of an in-patient and which ward to find them on. The odd commuter that can do that is not a big problem, the system only needs to prevent large scale abuse.
SteveW
How does that matter - they are visiting a patient who is on a ward there and know their name and that they are there - which is adequate proof of a reason to park there.
The main reception desk yes, but every ward (sometimes pair of wards) has its own reception desk/nursing station that you go to to say who you are visiting and they tell you which bed the patient is in and if you can go straight in or need to wait because they are eating or being examined.
At many wards, you have to buzz the local desk for them to release the doors and allow you access.
These desks are operational 24 hours a day - although some will be covered by staff passing every few minutes.
SteveW
Think you are forgetting that some will use free parking for their own purposes. Often nothing to do with the shop or hospital. And even those who use it for genuine reasons ain't going to be in such a hurry to leave if it is free.
If you really do *need* to go to A&E, you're not going to be able to drive there anyway.
That is totally at odds with my experience of visiting patients in hospitals in London and elsewhere, in beds from intensive care in tertiary centres through to "cottage" hospitals awaiting discharge to care homes. The most I've ever done is make myself known to the staff on the ward. And if they recognise me as a repeat visitor it's often been no more than a nod as I go in. I can't envisage the staff being keen to take over the job of handing out tokens.
I can envisage that, if these tokens are not date and time limited, there will rapidly be a market for them. After all, your simple scheme seems to involve no requirement to show a car has been parked. So visitors using public transport can collect tokens to sell to those who want them - eg for commuter parking.
But someone else may drive you there (not necessarily in an ambulance) and that might still involve using the patient's blue badge
Largely mine too, critical care wards and A&E generally do involve you getting buzzed-in, but almost everywhere else it is a case of just wandering in, and if the patient is no longer where they were last time try to find someone to tell you where they've moved to ...
but, sopmeone (spouse) might drive you there. It's often quicker than waiting for an ambulance.
when I was a Christmas Postie, some 60 years ago, we were given a token for the bus journey between thesorting office & our delivery area.
I've only had to buzzed in at the maternity ward when I went to see my new grandson.
I have certainly driven my son there when he kept stopping breathing at
5 weeks old (viral encephalitis) - he got there far faster than an ambulance could have got to us. It was touch and go for five days and my wife stayed in hospital the whole time. I kept leaving as his brother was only 2 and we wanted me to put him to bed and get him up rather than my parents (who stayed in our house for the week). Even then I needed to drive - one night I got home (less than 10 minutes after leaving the hospital room) only to receive a call to get back immediately as they thought they were losing him. Taxis, buses and the like would not have done!Now the A&E has closed, but there is still a combined after-hours GP practice, minor injuries unit and the facilities to deal with something that turns out to be more serious that they at first thought.
SteveW
You can't even get to the Rheumatology clinic that shares an entrance with an elderly (not dementia) ward without buzzing in (outside visiting hours) at our local hospital. During visiting hours, the door is left open, but you have to walk past the ward reception desk, where there is invariably someone with notes in their hand, another on the computer and and a couple more chatting.
SteveW
Both local and specialist centres that I have had experience of in recent months have kept the public entrances to the wards closed and electronically released during my visits in the last 6 months.
I have never visited a ward at either without speaking to a member of staff and letting them know who I was visiting - they usually want to know before buzzing you in.
SteveW
The few visitors that did that would not greatly damage the effectiveness of the system. You are not trying to prevent everyone who shouldn't from parking there, just discourage enough that parking isn't such a problem.
My experience (not London) has been that almost all visitors turn up by car (whether they drive themselves or not), as it is far quicker that way; there's no fitting in with bus timetables and you can nip out if the patient aks you to get them something from the shops.
SteveW
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