Shropshire Star

Travel plan encourages Shropshire hospital workers to walk, cycle and car share

Health bosses are being asked to approve a travel plan which will encourage staff working at Shropshire's two main hospitals to walk, cycle, car share or use public transport to get to work.

Published
Telford's Princess Royal Hospital and Royal Shrewsbury Hospital

A report to Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust's board, which meets today, says it will help keep staff fit and healthy and there will also be benefits for the environment.

It says there are also parking issues at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Telford's Princess Royal Hospital, with demand in excess of capacity of up to 300 cars at peak times.

The report says: "Around 230 of this excess is at RSH, with the remaining 60 at PRH.

"At both sites, there is frequent ad-hoc parking on verges, access roads and on pathways.

"The ad-hoc parking presents a number of problems for Sath.

"It often represents an obstruction for pedestrians and a trip hazard for visually impaired users of the site and bars access from portions of the sites to those in a wheelchair."

The workplace travel plan for 2019-2021 will encourage staff to car share.

Sath currently runs a branded car-sharing scheme operated by Liftshare, which enables people to find partners for common journeys.

There are a dedicated number of spaces at each site for those who car-share and there are plans to combine this with other incentives, such as reduced prices on permits for car sharers.

There are also plans to move to a pay as you park system for staff and promote flexible working hours.

Sath plans to further invest in additional cycling facilities and other measures include utilising its fleet of pool vehicles more effectively.

The travel plan states: "Supporting people in our local community to stay fit and healthy is at the heart of what we do at Sath, and that includes helping our staff, patients and visitors to travel safely and sustainably to our hospitals.

"Our travel plan plays an important part in that.

"As one of the region’s largest employers we have a responsibility to do what we can to promote sustainable transport, and we are successfully engaging with our staff to help them make the right choice when travelling to and from work.

"Wherever possible and practical, we encourage our colleagues to walk or cycle to work and many leave the car at home in favour of public transport. The benefits are huge, both for health and wellbeing and for the environment.

"Over the past few years we’ve worked hard to create viable alternatives for staff travelling to work by car, particularly on their own, and we continue to work with local travel companies to offer discounts and incentives to make public transport an affordable and convenient choice.

"We also encourage our patients and visitors to use public transport, or walk or cycle if they are able, and we’re working with local organisations to improve walking and cycling access to our sites.

"The travel plan is about looking to the future, and seeing what we can all do to support our communities to become more sustainable."

The trust board will meet this afternoon at PRH.