HEALTH chiefs have admitted 2,500 car parking passes have been issued to employees at the Worcestershire Royal Hospital, despite the congested car park having fewer than 1,000 dedicated spaces for members of staff.
While all of the passes issued would not be used at the same time, Trust bosses admitted in an internal e-mail to staff seen by the Observer the situation added up to the ‘chaotic scenes’ often seen in the Royal’s under-pressure car park.
Campaigners have fought a long-running campaign to increase car parking spaces at the Royal with county council chiefs even mooting a possible multi-storey car park for the site to ease pressure faced by visitors to the county’s flagship hospital.
In a message on 4Ward, an e-mail sent to all members of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust staff, deputy Chief Executive and Chief Operating Officer Paul Brennan admitted during busy times of the week, parking and traffic congestion caused significant frustration and inconvenience for staff, patients and visitors.
The health chief called for members of staff to share any ideas for the tackling the situation and revealed the problem was being debated at the highest level of the Trust.
“As our hospitals get busier, and as we recruit more staff, managing the ever growing demand for parking spaces is becoming a bigger and bigger challenge for us. It’s an issue we take very seriously and it will be the top priority for our new Director of Estates and Facilities Stephen Welch who joined us last week,” he said.
“I have asked Stephen to look at parking and travel issues as a matter of urgency so we can understand the full extent of the problems we face now, what actions will be required to find sustainable long-term solutions and what short-term actions we might be able to take to temporarily ease some of the worst pressure.”
Mr Brennan also highlighted the ‘frankly unacceptable’ behaviour which has been seen on the car parks such as incidents of cars being damaged in staff car parks by other drivers who ‘bump and run’ without even leaving any contact details or even a note of apology.
“We should not, and will not, tolerate these colleagues being bullied or harassed simply for carrying out their often thankless task. Can I please also ask you to be patient while any solutions are developed,” he added.
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