Selfish motorists spark fresh action over Raigmore Hospital’s car park overcrowding headache
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Raigmore Hospital’s chronic car park overcrowding problem is to have another course of treatment in an effort to cure the stressful situation.
Despite £620,000 being spent to install overflow spaces two years ago there are still fears that some drivers may be using the space as a park-and-ride to get to and from the city centre or as long-term parking while they jet off on holiday.
Indeed NHS Highland has put legitimate users on “bay watch” alert, urging them to report any suspected misuse.
In what has been a long-standing problem for the health board and patients, many people over the years who have tried to meet clinic appointments at the hospital have reported being unable to find a ready space in the vast car park – and, during the day, cars occupy every scrap of space as increasingly frantic drivers cruise round and round.
But now NHS Highland has revealed more works are starting to improve the car park – including the installation of a barrier system previously put on hold due to the Covid pandemic. It is proposed that barriers will control vehicles both entering and exiting the free car park, and staff are to be issued with new parking permits.
NHS Highland has also secured Scottish Government funding to plane, resurface and re-line the car park, remove unnecessary islands and relocate the entry barrier to allow more space for queuing cars.
These measures include realignment of the internal bus and car lanes, which will increase the number of parking bays by 11 and increase the disabled parking bays by 18. But the health board is yet to reveal details of how members of the public looking to legitimately access the car park will be able to do so once the barriers are operational.
Nevertheless Highlands and Islands Conservative MSP Edward Mountain, who launched his Raigmore Parking Campaign in 2018 and collected 1000 signatures in a petition calling for improvements to be made, welcomed the new moves.
He said: “I’m delighted to hear from NHS Highland that extra parking spaces will soon be made available for patients, staff and visitors to Raigmore Hospital.
“While I am disappointed that the barrier entry system was not fully implemented in 2019, I am pleased that this key part of the improvement works is now going ahead.
“The overcrowded car park has been a source of frustration for many and I will continue to monitor NHS Highland closely to ensure the parking solutions are delivered.”
The overflow car parks completed in 2019 used more than £558,000 from the Highland Health Board Endowment Fund.
In a letter to Mr Mountain, NHS Highland chief executive Pamela Dudek said: “We are now in the process of all staff being issued with new car parking permits. The barrier implementation was held up due to the Covid pandemic and there have been issues with the ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) system. This is currently being resolved.
“A car park group is being set up. It will be a forum for staff, staff side, and patients’ council to raise any concerns and also somewhere we can feed information into. This will be part of the Facilities communication strategy.”
Regarding car park monitoring she told Mr Mountain: “Security officers carry out routine patrols of the car park every day and we have their presence at the entrance of the car park each morning directing staff to the back of the car park and patients, relatives to the front.”
