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Disabled hit out over Puffin Pool parking chaos





Puffin Pool protestors, from left, Jean Kafetzaki, Meg MacKay, Brenda MacKenzie, Jackie Wood, June Cockburn and Jock Watt. Picture: Ian Rhind.
Puffin Pool protestors, from left, Jean Kafetzaki, Meg MacKay, Brenda MacKenzie, Jackie Wood, June Cockburn and Jock Watt. Picture: Ian Rhind.

ANGRY disabled people have hit out over parking chaos at a specialist treatment unit in Ross-shire, which they say is costing them their health.

Users of the Puffin Pool in Dingwall say they are losing their much-needed sessions at the unit, which treats rheumatic and other debilitating conditions, because able-bodied people are taking their parking spaces. The situation has been made worse recently because major upgrading work at Dingwall Health Centre has seen the surgery relocated to demountable units adjacent to the Puffin Pool, and there is less parking.

But Puffin Pool users, who come from across the Highlands, are now calling on health authorities to get together to find a solution to the parking chaos.

Joan Kafetzaki, from Muir of Ord, has multiple sclerosis and uses the Puffin Pool each week. She said: "There is definitely misuse and we see people parking in the Puffin Pool car park and going either to the doctor’s surgery or to the hospital. And it’s not just patients and visitors - we’ve also seen medical staff do it.

"My friend Brenda drives me to the Puffin Pool and quite often has problems trying to get parked. We have to park round the back of the hospital and if I don’t take my Veloped walking aid with me, I am unable to get into the Puffin Pool with just my sticks.

"The other day we saw three minibuses with disabled youngsters arrive at the pool and they couldn’t get parked. They had to wait until somebody from the doctor’s surgery moved until they could get the children in.

"Our sessions in the pool are only 45 minutes and if people are not able to park it means they lose part of their sessions because we have to be out ready for the next group coming in. This results in us losing part of our treatment which is obviously a big worry."

Mrs Kafetzaki said there were parking issues even before the health centre refurbishments and believed a major part of the problem was lack of parking at the adjacent Ross Memorial Hospital.

"I think all the interested parties ought to get together and find a way of doing it so that everybody knows where they should park," she said

Brenda MacKenzie, from Beauly, who uses the Puffin Pool to help with her severe arthritis, has also encountered parking problems.

"It’s happening every day and people are up in arms about it," said Mrs Mackenzie.

"All the classes are complaining about the parking situation. I said to the lads who work at the Puffin Pool that they should challenge people who are misusing the car park but they just get the height of abuse.

"I’m lucky because I’m not that bad yet and can walk round the back of the hospital but others are not so fortunate and it is very difficult for them. I was speaking to a lady in a wheelchair the other day and they couldn’t near the pool. She had come all the way from Dunbeath to use it."

NHS Highland Mid Ross District Manager Rhiannon Pitt said: "We are aware that staff and visitors to the site are parking in the Puffin Pool car park, and this is affecting access for disabled people.

"We have an agreement with Ross County Football Club that staff can park in the stadium car park during the week and would ask that staff continue to do so.

"We have placed signs around the car park to politely remind people that there are alternative parking spaces located in the hospital grounds."


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