CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh
"Hospital workers face car parking ban at ERI"
(140 posts)-
Posted 9 years ago #
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Two points;
1. the interviewees who say that they will have to get 2 buses, take 2h travelling etc.etc. should be directed to the info about the park and ride later in the article.
2. Parking at any hosp is miserable for staff anyway, not just ERI. (Says my other half)Posted 9 years ago # -
My sis is pretty upset about this as she drives on night shift saturdays and sundays when there are no other options for her (park and ride closed and no buses until 2 hours after her shift finishes) . She has 2 bairns so wants to get home after a night shift.
She does cycle in the summer mind but slateford - ERI is hardly the worlds loveliest cycle.
IMHO it's pretty bad all in all. They're already underpaid and overworked for the most part. It's pretty brutal to remove something that's always been an option with little to no warning.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Very short consultation period.
Though there must be some staff and some shift patterns where using public transport works?
They are reducing the car parking space with the new sick kids. But does seem no matter how big a hospital car park. Is, there will be times when it is full up?
Posted 9 years ago # -
Well, that seems bonkers.
Posted 9 years ago # -
With anything like this I always like to turn it on its head to check we don't simply have an 'argument to inertia'.
If the hospital wants to expand the number of staff it employs, should they be obliged to provide extra parking spaces first?
How much staff parking was there at the old Royal Infirmary?
Etc. etc.
Posted 9 years ago # -
The issue with the new ERI is that it is located on the periphery of edinburgh. Good arguments for ambulances getting there avoiding congestion etc. But the city centre location of the old ERI was handy if you lived centrally. Taxi to Simpsons was fine for example if labour underway. Walking or cycling there also easy. The new site with added sick kids locates much of the hospital estate in the one location. Parking at sick kids nonexistent at the moment. Some stáff have been known to abuse the permit that allows medics to park on yellow lines etc. The real estate value of the sick kids will be high.
Issues need teased out but the management diktat seems very blunt and is doubtless being rewritten as a two week trial.
Posted 9 years ago # -
The issues here are complex (understatement of the day).
The RIE 'moved' and became the ERI because it wasn't 'possible' to redevelop/expand the Lauriston Place site.
This was a mixture of campaigns by Tollcross residents, a general move away from comprehensive demolition and rebuilding in city centres and 'money'. At the time (70's) plans also involved significant expansion of (and with) the University.
But it was still a time when it was assumed 'everyone' would drive.
Even before the hospital opened, Moredun residents were warning about 'parking problems' due to staff parking in local streets rather than pay on-site.
CEC largely ignored this 'problem'. Similarly it was years before parking on ODRd was banned (Spokes campaign).
Clearly there are issues about public transport (if only the first tram line had been to the hospital rather than the airport...), shift working, 'management' - and PFI.
Generally, how employees get to and from work isn't the employers' problem.
Still many seem 'obliged' to provide parking - eg Edinburgh Park. Oh and the significant amount at Astley Ainslie - much more central.
Late night pub staff often get offered taxis or minibuses.
I'm sure the NHS can sort something out...
Posted 9 years ago # -
It was and remains a silly location for a hospital, terrible transport links, too far away for half the city. The car parks could be many times larger and still be too small though I expect they constrain demand somewhat.
Gembo, good luck getting a black cab to take you to the labour wards most will laugh and hang up at the thought of getting their cabs (really really) dirty. The only redeeming feature of the ERI is that for all of my children I've had no problem getting parked to take my wife to hospital, 3 in the morning the place tends to be deserted, and I've generally had to hang around the place (a lot) so I can only imagine my city centre parking fees!!
Posted 9 years ago # -
Does this actually apply in the middle of the night? It would seem a bit daft if it did. Although it sounds to me like a good candidate for a really good car share scheme. It would seem fair to give them a chance to sort one out first though.
It is also quite scary that apparently the vast acreages of car parks there are still not enough.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Could one of those EMHorsburgh microbuses shuttle between the park/ride and the infirmary outside of the hours of operation of the normal P&R buses, or would there be some sort of toe-stepping/permission problem?
Posted 9 years ago # -
"
HOSPITAL bosses have made a partial U-turn over a parking ban for staff at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.
"
Posted 9 years ago # -
Gembo, good luck getting a black cab to take you to the labour wards most will laugh and hang up at the thought of getting their cabs (really really) dirty
We did a lot of phoning ahead. And promised to sit on a towel...
We did cycle up for all the scans, although the one at the Lauriston Building was much more conveniently located the machines are older and have less resolution so they insist on at least one trip out to the sticks.
Now I come to think of it, there's not a huge amount of advice available for the car-less on getting to the maternity ward. It is limited to "phone around taxi companies".
Maybe next time if it's during the day we'll just take the bus. Only 1 change required on the Bridges... Despite it being only 3.5 miles from our house, it would take the best part of an hour to get there by bus.
Posted 9 years ago # -
The Leith one was okay but the best I had was the western, I could just pop down from the office on queen street.
When Child A and mother were stuck in the ERI for a week, I rode down after work a few times but its far from a pleasant ride.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Sensible compromise seems to be to allow staff into car parks overnight, but not during the day. Probably wouldn't suite 8 till 8 shift patterns though...
Posted 9 years ago # -
@min - car share is a good idea for some but get's difficult when you consider how different the average shift pattern is for nurses/doctors.
Compare my cousin, sister and their friend who all work in ERI and live in slateford.
Sister - Works 1-2 night shifts a week unless she swaps for a day shift with on of the other workers, and can get child care for her kids.
Cousin - works 4 on 3 off shift pattern but also swaps shifts to try and get more time with her kids during the day if she's on nights.
Friend - works in a different ward and does 9-5 5 days a week.
I just can['t see it being a feasible solution for this particular problem unfortunately. but it is an interesting one. Suppose there is a question on the "how many variables are too many for a successful car share scheme"
Posted 9 years ago # -
I worked for a firm that did a lot of the legal work for the PFI (not by me I hasten to add), and the sick kids thing has been a ticking time bomb. Not actually a legal issue either, but a common sense, forward planning, general muppetry of decisions kinda way.
As has been said above, seems daft for those really late night / early morning shifts. And I'd agree that it's a candidate for putting car share and the like in place (yep, shift patterns will make it difficult for some, but for others it'll work, and therefore make life easier for those without the option). Also a regular staff shuttle to and from the park and ride would make so much sense for those who have to drive.
I have occasion to be in the ERI for two (self inflicted injury) ops and it really was a pain for visitors to get to (minimum two buses from any location, and well over an hour to travel; or take the car and run the risk of not getting a space). I cycled for follow ups on my broken arm (all pinned and screwed together, so no stookie and could ride a couple of weeks later, albeit gingerly), but had to bus it for my knee, and for the majority of the city it's a ridiculous location. Of course it services more than just the city, so close access to the bypass will be much much better for those travelling from various bits of the Lothians,
There'll never be a perfect solution, but the place can't operate if the actual workers can't get there!
Posted 9 years ago # -
There will be plenty of staff who could use car sharing easily enough, few of them will be nurses admittedly.
Maybe the NHS could lobby the council and get decent segregated paths on the ODR which for me was the worst bit of the cycle from either town or Gorgie. Again might not be the solution for late shift workers but it might help.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Suppose there is a question on the "how many variables are too many for a successful car share scheme"
Yes, it wouldn't necessarily be very straightforward! But if each person could car share say, once a week it would still help. And there will be some people who would have less of a problem and could do it much more often.
I just think that something should be tried, even though I sympathise with the crapness of the location and the difficulty of working shifts, I can't believe that no-one who works at the ERI ever has any other option other than to drive there every time (alone).
Posted 9 years ago # -
decent segregated paths on the ODR
Or as I call it, Old Deathtrap Road.
At least they have now removed parking along there completely. The stretches of parking immediately after each pinch point was horrific. Worst possible place.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Even if two people's shifts align doesn't mean it's appropriate for them to car share. NHS currently runs on the goodwill of its employees, including massive quantities of unofficial overtime. My partner leaving the ward 2 hours after her official handover time is not unusual. She's currently working at St Johns where the limited parking means staff arriving at some shifts find the entrance gates already closed to newcomers; parking in local housing estates is the standard procedure.
Posted 9 years ago # -
All the more reason for those who can car share to do so!
Posted 9 years ago # -
"a pain for visitors to get to (minimum two buses from any location,"
It's only one bus for me from our flat. will grant you that it is slow, but works fine whenever i've used it (which is a fair bit, given I was part of a study out there in addition to two births and a couple of ops/outpatient visits).
having thought about it, I *could* make it 2 buses, but taking the 10 or 27 to Grey's Loan, and have done if one were coming along at the right moment. But usually I walk a couple of blocks -- it's two stops along.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Hmm. My options from home would be to walk fifty metres or half a mile for one-bus journeys or fifty metres for a two-bus journey, though I've never tried any of them.
Posted 9 years ago # -
"
HEALTH bosses have called for a cap on staff parking spaces at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary to be relaxed as the row over a controversial car ban escalates.
It comes as a nurse launched an online petition against the hospital’s plan to stop staff using bays in certain car parks at the site, at a cost of up to £7 a day.
From Monday, security guards will turn away employees who arrive for work by car unless they have a permit.
Union reps have condemned the NHS Lothian “diktat” as unacceptable and unworkable.
"
Posted 9 years ago # -
"a pain for visitors to get to (minimum two buses from any location,"
I can't think of any location on the Lothian Buses network where you'd need more than two buses to get to ERI. Anybody know?
Posted 9 years ago # -
Anywhere that one has to get more than two buses into town, I can't think of a single place though...
Posted 9 years ago # -
> Anywhere that one has to get more than two buses into town, I can't think of a single place though...
Ratho?
Posted 9 years ago # -
"a pain for visitors to get to (minimum two buses from any location,"
ERI also serves most of Lothian and beyond, probably take more than 2 buses to get there from Addiewell...
Posted 9 years ago # -
466 to St John's Hospital, change on to the 40 Shuttle to ERI.
Mind how you go.
Posted 9 years ago #
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