Royal Shrewsbury Hospital parking 'totally inadequate'

Parking at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital has been branded "totally inadequate", with patients forced to pay fines for leaving cars on grass verges or risk missing appointments.

That is the claim of Tina Houston, from Battlefield in Shrewsbury, who visited the hospital with her husband on Monday for an appointment with a consultant.

She claims the couple could not even find a space on the overflow car park and were forced to park outside a bay.

Despite buying a £2 ticket and constant checks every 15 minutes, the couple received a £15 fine.

Mrs Houston said around 25 other cars had been hit with fines as people were left with no option but to park awkwardly across the site because of a sheer lack of spaces.

She said: "The parking facilities are totally inadequate.

"We were there at a busy time during visiting opening hours and there were other things on in the day surgery and educational centre. But there was just nowhere to park.

"People were having to leave their cars on grass verges and it just adds greater stress to patients needing to go to hospital.

"My husband wanted to be with me for the appointment but he had to go out every 15 minutes to check on the car.

"When I spoke to a member of staff they told me people were always complaining about the parking and something needs to be done."

Mrs Houston said people would soon be forced to start parking in neighbouring streets if the problem was not sorted out, which would lead to problems for nearby residents.

A spokesman for the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust said that bosses would encourage anyone finding it difficult to park to talk to parking attendants who are based on site.

He said they would be on hand to provide advice on where to park so people could get to appointments.

"The trust would like to apologise for any inconvenience this experience caused," he added.

"Travelling to hospital can be an anxious time, so we do urge people to allow plenty of time to park and to talk to the car parking attendants if you are finding it difficult to park."

For more information about parking visit www.sath.nhs.uk/patients-and-visitors/Getting-to-us/car_parking.aspx

By Sam Pinnington