Parking charges are to be introduced for visitors at the new Victoria Ambulatory Care and Diagnostic Centre (ACAD).

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said that the not-for profit scheme will deliver vastly improved disabled access and safer parking areas. The money generated will be put into improving lighting and safety and creating more parking spaces.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s Director of Facilities, Alex McIntyre, said, ‘Parking charges are being introduced in response to growing and often severe congestion in our hospital car parks, as well as planning and other obligations. In part this congestion is caused by shoppers, commuters and others using our hospitals to park for long periods in the day for free. We want to make sure that patients and visitors – the people who actually use our services – have a far better chance of getting a parking space. The parking tariff has been designed specifically to cater for our many thousands of outpatients and visitors, almost all of whom require to park between one and three hours.’ 

The new car parks will charge £1 for the first two hours, then £1 for every additional hour up to seven hours. After seven hours, drivers will be charged the maximum of £12. Special concessions will be made for parents and guardians of children undergoing extensive treatment. Disabled drivers will park free and people on low incomes will be able to reclaim the cost of parking. Hospital managers will also be able to waive the parking fees in ‘exceptional circumstances’.

The decision has met with opposition from Margaret Hinds, Chair of the South East Health Service Forum. She told the LOCAL NEWS, ‘If you’re visiting very ill relatives or friends every night, the charges won’t be long in mounting up. It’s going to cost people a lot of money, especially those on a low wage. Public transport is not easy, and taxis are also very expensive. If you’re visiting someone in the hospital, you’re going to end up constantly looking at your watch.’

Her feelings were echoed by SNP candidate for the Cathcart Holyrood seat, James Dornan, who said, ‘I am appalled to hear of the proposed parking charges at the Victoria Infirmary. It is not beyond the wit of NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde to come up with a solution such as a voucher or pass system which could be handed out to hospital visitors who have legitimate business there.  I’m pleased to see that it will be easier for disabled drivers to park free, presumably by displaying their pass, but this only proves that a similarly simple system could be used by the Health Board for patients.’

The new Victoria ACAD is one of five hospitals in Glasgow to have parking charges introduced from the start of April, along with Gartnavel General Hospital, Yorkhill Childrens Hospital, Health Board headquarters and the Western Infirmary. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said that ‘the other main hospital sites will follow in due course.’