Car parking at Peterborough City Hospital ‘near crisis level’ as plans for multi-storey revealed

Members of the council’s Health Scrutiny Committee were listening to a report from Caroline Walker, CEO of North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust which is responsible for Peterborough, Stamford and Rutland and Hinchingbrooke hospitals.

She said: “The new 106 car parking spaces being built at the front of PCH will not be opened until late February.

“This will help matters for a short while, but the hospital was very badly designed – there simply are not enough car parking spaces for staff or the public.

“We have a situation where staff members are being forced to park in spaces for the public as they have no choice when the staff parking areas are full.

“This makes matters worse for the public who then complain of spending many minutes driving around trying to find a parking spot.

“The problem is made worse by the fact there is only one entrance and exit to PCH.

“This has to be used by all the buses, taxis, deliveries, members of the public and of course all of our emergency vehicles.”

Committee chair Cllr Kim Aitken asked if it would be possible to find funding for a multi-storey car park.

Ms Walker, who took over her job at the trust in October 2018, said: “A multi-storey car park is on our long term radar, yes, but funding it is the main issue.

“More immediately, we’ve spoken with our staff, 48 per cent of whom live within 3km of the hospital, and told them it is unacceptable for them to bring a car to work unless they are doing shift work.

“So, from April onwards, we will be operating an ‘agreed travel plan’ for staff, which should put less pressure on staff parking spaces.

“When I worked in Leicestershire the hospitals there were designed much better with mostly three entrances and exits as well as multiple car parks.

“This meant emergency vehicles could arrive at the correct triage point for the needs of the patient.

“Consequently, queues of ambulances waiting around to off-load patients simply didn’t happen like it does at PCH.”

Cllr Nick Sandford had concerns about building a multi-storey car park: “I understand the need for parking at a hospital, but I think we need to reconsider the long-term plan for more multi-storey car parks on this site.

“Instead, shouldn’t we rather investigate with Stagecoach their bus service which some of us have been complaining about for more than 20 years now.

“If somebody from Orton wanted to go to PCH they would have to travel into the city first and then change to another bus taking them out of the city centre to the hospital. It’s madness that we’re being held to ransom by a bus operator who simply will not even consider the possibility of circular routes around the city.

“Instead, they insist on providing routes into and out of the city, regardless of where their passengers actually want to go.”

Ms Walker replied: “We are in the process of talking with Stagecoach about the bus service to the hospital, but as you rightly say they have a policy which has not been changed over several decades.

“Finding the money for a multi-storey car park would be difficult – we would need to talk with the council as well as the NHS. We also have to factor in the new government announcements and views on hospital car parking.”

Committee members noted the report and looked forward to the newly-built 106 spaces being officially opened for use at the end of February.

Robert Alexander, Local Democracy Reporting Service