Published: Wednesday, 21st July, 2010 11:32am

Row over parking at new £300m hospital

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A row has broken out between staff and management over parking at the new £300 million Forth Valley Royal Hospital.

Parking spaces are limited at the new facility which opens at the end of this month and staff have to apply for permits.

Those not successful have been told by management to take public transport but staff complain that this would potentially add hours on to their working day.

Now just weeks before the first phase of services transfer to the new facility at Larbert, hundreds of staff from Stirling and Falkirk Royal Infirmaries have signed petitions circulating the wards calling for a meeting over the issue.

Last week more than 100 members attended a union meeting to discuss the dispute with further action planned.

A Wee County nurse, who wished to remain anonymous, said, "We have been told to travel in by public transport, either the buses or trains, but it's going to mean added expense and extending our working hours considerably. I car share with three others but none of us have been given a permit. I know people who have young children and need to take them to child-minder in the morning that haven't been given a permit. What about those that start at 5.30am or finish shifts at 2am?"

She went on, "Management's argument is that they have improved transport links. But they have so much ground at the site, why haven't they built enough car parking? We feel we're being dictated to about how we are to travel to work. This is going to affect the general public as staff morale will go down."

Nursing union the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Scotland has said that some members may have to travel around two hours extra to get to the new hospital using public transport, compared to a 30 minute car journey.

RCN Scotland Officer for Forth Valley, Philip Coghill, said, "For some, this would mean leaving home at 5am to get to work to start an early shift - and then having to do it all in reverse at the end of the day. That is not reasonable and we would challenge such circumstances on behalf of individual members. In the meantime, we would encourage RCN members to contact us with their concerns."

After being contacted by constituents, Ochil MSP Keith Brown said he had spoken to NHS Forth Valley chairman Ian Mullen who gave him assurances that any "anomalous" permit rejections would be looked at again.

A spokeswoman for NHS Forth Valley said all applications for parking permits were assessed on an individual basis using an "evaluation system" developed in partnership with staff and representatives.

This took into account 20 different factors, including shift patterns, requirement to travel across different sites, on-call responsibilities, ability to access public transport, childcare and carer responsibilities.

She went on, "We appreciate that some staff were disappointed that their application was unsuccessful, however, it was simply not possible to issue a permit to everyone who applied. Staff who have not been issued a permit and feel that this doesn't reflect their circumstances, or if they are having specific problems getting to work on time using public transport, are being asked to contact the Permit Allocation Team.

"Each letter will be reviewed individually and a permit may be being issued depending on the specific circumstances.  A number of letters received already indicate that some applicants did not highlight relevant information on their original applications and these applications will now be reassessed.

"The number of spaces at the new hospital is based on detailed work commissioned by NHS Forth Valley which took into account estimated hospital activity and a review of existing travel behaviour at Falkirk and Stirling Royal Infirmaries. This led to the development of a Travel Plan which forms part of a planning agreement with Falkirk Council.

"Staff representatives have been closely involved in the development of the car parking policy for the new hospital and we would be happy to meet with the RCN to discuss the car parking arrangements."