Dedicated NHS staff working tirelessly throughout the pandemic are being hit with parking fines at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, the Express can reveal.
Union bosses have hit out at the “shambolic” parking facilities at the Paisley hospital, which is forcing staff to park in disabled bays, unauthorised spaces and double yellow lines.
They are renewing calls for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde to add more spaces for staff, patients and visitors following claims the situation is out of control.
Sam Mullin, GMB Scotland NHS Representative, said: “Staff at the Royal Alexandra Hospital are working under the cosh and are being forced to park where they shouldn’t.
“At the car park in the hospital, there is constantly yellow envelopes all over the ground as people are being ticketed left right and centre.
“But where are they supposed to park?
“Something needs to be done to address this as more and more services are being transferred to the RAH which is a good thing.
“But the hospital has outgrown the car park and the only thing that is going to solve it is providing more spaces.
“For a few months last year, the health board relaxed the parking restrictions but now as services are resuming again we are right back where they started.”
Mr Mullin also believes parking meters on nearby streets are “making a bad situation worse”.
Pay and display, combined with a residents’ parking scheme was introduced by Renfrewshire Council in January last year following a number of issues with residents having difficulty accessing their driveways.
The council said it would continue to monitor the situation.
Mr Mullin added: “It is only moving the problem elsewhere.
“Staff using these spaces are under more pressure as they face having to leave their shift to go and put money in a meter. That is just not feasible.
“The double yellow lines could also be removed and that would free up some additional space.
“Instead, you have staff being forced to park there and risking coming out from their shift to a fine slapped on their windscreen.”
The health board previously said there are no restrictions on parking at the hospital after 4pm during the week, at weekends or on public holidays and they are helping staff to plan their journeys to work, encouraging them to use public transport.
The site has 1,162 spaces and 55 per cent of these are for staff – 644 spaces in all.
Of these 309 are for staff who do not have permits and are available on a first come, first served basis.
Councillor Kenny MacLaren, who represents Paisley Northwest, said it is “not good enough” to present public transport as a solution.
He said: “Staff were forced out of the car park when the barriers were installed and onto the surrounding streets in order to find somewhere to park. Asking staff to rely on public transport isn’t good enough as it is not the easiest of places for some to get to and creates difficulties for people.
“Staff should be able to feel safe and secure coming to their work.”
A health board spokesman said: “We continue to undertake regular audits of the car park capacity which indicate that while busy at certain times of the day, overall campus capacity has not been breached during Covid-19.
“Our parking attendants remain active on the site to provide guidance to staff and patients.”
