More people complain about buses than our parking, Rotherham Hospital says

Rotherham HospitalRotherham Hospital
Rotherham Hospital
WHICH is trickier when visiting Rotherham Hospital – parking the car or taking the bus?

The transport topic came up when health bosses took their annual report to councillors earlier this month (Oct).

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Michael Wright, managing director at the Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust, told members of the health select commission: “We are looking at parking.

“It’s been a challenge for quite some time. We have invested in automatic number plate recognition which will identify if people have appropriate passes to park on site, and manage that.

“We are looking at providing other spaces in a different area just further down the road. We are encouraging people to use public transport where possible.”

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Cllr Paul Thorp asked if an investor could be brought in to build and operate a car park with more capacity.

Mr Wright said: “I don’t think that has been looked at as an option. It’s something that we can certainly consider.

“I know other hospitals have outsourced parking functions, certainly in inner-cities, for example Liverpool teaching hospitals.

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“I think a multi-storey would come at a significant cost, and we would need to understand where we put that. But I will certainly take that back and have that discussion.”

Cllr Drew Tarmey said: “Parking always causes all sorts of consternation. I have experience of paying staff parking charges at a hospital site where the car park had been outsourced.

“It will just increase the cost. It’s already quite expensive. You can usually get a space at Rotherham.”

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Chief nurse Helen Dobson said information from Healthwatch Rotherham suggested that public transport was causing more concern for patients than parking.

“Although yes, there were inevitably comments about parking, we had a lot more comments about public transport access,” she added.

“I think that would be our plea, that since Covid, where there was a reduction in some of the public transport systems, a lot of our service users say what they would like to see is better public transport links to the hospital.”

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Mrs Dobson said the hospital’s carers’ charter would look at offering concessionary parking rates for carers.

The hospital previously submitted outline plans for a multi-storey car park in 2009. The idea was promptly shelved after Rotherham Council demanded a six-figure Section 106 payment.

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