Shuttle buses among ideas to improve Lincolnshire’s ‘heaving’ hospital car parks

Health chiefs are looking at ways to improve the availability of car parking spaces at hospitals in the county - including the option of operating shuttle buses.

Ideas including a park and ride service and a review of staff parking have also been mooted.

The difficulty of getting parked was raised as part of the United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust update at last week’s Lincolnshire County Council Health Scrutiny Committee meeting.

Coun Thomas Smith described hospital car parks as ‘heaving’, arguing the lack of alternative transport forces people to get behind the wheel.

He also hinted that full car parks can cause people miss vital appointments.

“Public transport for many is not a viable option,” said Coun Smith (Conservative), who represents South Wolds.

“To get to Lincoln County, Pilgrim at Boston or Grimsby you might get there but you won’t get back.

“One parish in my division has no scheduled bus service to speak of at all. Keelby isn’t much better and it’s the second largest settlement in my division, which is why ULHT have such busy car parks.

“You can’t park and can’t have your appointment changed. You need to be able to park.”

A report by the ULHT said: “We are looking at both short-term and long-term solutions to improve the car parking situation on all sites.”

Among the options put forward were: a review of staff parking permissions within patient and visitor car parks, improved CCTV coverage to support enforcement of the trust car parking policy, increased promotion of existing public transport services, investment in VMS (Variable Message Signs) which inform patients and visitors when car parks are full, park and ride options, shuttle bus options, investment in additional spaces.

“Any complaints around car parking are dealt with by our PALs team, but we currently do not collate data on the direct impact of car parking on missed appointments, for example,” the report added.

“We also provide information on alternative travel modes, to reduce the number of patients and visitors travelling by car.

“We are also looking to add a link to patient letters, signposting patients and visitors, to local public transport information.”

Julie Frake-Harris, chief operating officer at ULHT, told the meeting she believes making services more available at more sites could be a way to help prevent parking headaches.

“We’re doing a big piece of work around ‘what do you actually need to come to an acute hospital site to be served for?’” she said.

“I think that’s part of this solution.

“I don’t think its necessarily having anymore car parks that it’s so far to walk from one car park to get into you appointment, that’s another problem in its own right.

“It’s about making sure we’ve got the maximum number of satellite opportunities across the whole of Lincolnshire and that very much links in to the the work we’re doing as a group, because of course we do now have a lot more suites we’re able to move our sevices to.

“That absolutely sits in with the philosophy of care closer to home.”