STAFF at South West Acute Hospital claim they will have to pay £113 a month just to park at work after the Western Health and Social Care Trust implemented new car parking arrangements. 
A third party company has been contracted to assist with day to day traffic management and motorists who do not comply with the new procedures will be issued with a parking charge notice and may incur a penalty. 

Read more: Hospital parking penalties are ‘a form of punishing the sick’
The arrangements, described by the local branch of Unison as “a form of punishing the sick”, are causing issues for some members of staff who have been in touch with this newspaper. 
“I have to leave children to school and the childminder and then drive 20 miles to work, I am experiencing problems every morning with car parking,” said one staff member. “I find this extremely stressful and the last few mornings have been horrendous.”
Last week the staff member, who did not want to be named, had to park away from the hospital. “On discussion with my colleagues in Belfast I have been advised that they pay £6.50 a month for car parking. I cannot afford to pay £5.60 daily, approximately £113 per month, for car parking. I am already paying childcare and with this added charge it will not pay me to come to work.”
“Part-time, shift and flexible employees with caring responsibilities are been penalised with these new parking arrangements as if you cannot get to work by 9am you have no free parking space. I do not know what I am going to do.” 
Another staff member spoke of how it takes her one hour to get into work. “Within the last couple of weeks I have arrived at ten past nine to find the multi storey car park full for staff spaces and another car park completely full. When I wait until I can get a space this has taken up to 45 minutes in some cases.
“As I am now getting into work approximately 40 minutes later than expected it means I am having to work later hours to compensate for the morning time loss. I am not able to concentrate on my daily duties as the stress of having to worry where I am going to park each morning has consumed me,” said the staff member, who also did not want to be named. 
Unison representative Jill Weir said the new arrangements “are having a negative impact on the well being of staff and also on the sick.”
“I have been told patients are running late for appointments and even travelling consultants and other medical staff are late for clinics as they can’t get a space,” she told The Impartial Reporter. 
Sinn Fein MLA Sean Lynch, whose party colleague Michelle O’Neill is Stormont’s health minister, said: “We should not be charging patients or our valued staff for car parking in hospitals.”

Impartial Reporter:

Sinn Fein MLA Sean Lynch.

“I have contacted the Trust management and asked them to review these decisions, and not to be placing the burden of inadequate parking provision on to staff and hospital users,” he said.
In a letter to staff last week, seen by this newspaper, Teresa Molloy, the Trust’s director of Performance and Service Improvement, explained that a “two week grace period” for implementing the procedures was almost over.
“There has been a positive impact in terms of the appropriate use of disabled bays, drop off/collection areas and blue light routes remaining clear and this is very much welcomed as this has been the primary aim of the new operational procedures,” she said.
Ms Molloy added that the Trust will now take into account the concerns raised. There will now be some areas of the hospital site in which control measures and penalties will not be applied. “The non-managed areas are generally away from hospital entrances, emergency blue light routes and are areas where some level of unauthorised parking can be tolerated. Whilst these areas are unmanaged we would ask for the full co-operation of staff in parking safely and taking into account the needs of all site users by not blocking other vehicles,” she said.