"Staff all very helpful"

Martha 58 my name is Sarah Wilson and am the Service Manager for the Fracture Service in Belfast Trust. Thank you so much for taking the time to write about your experience, and am very glad to hear it was a positive one within our service. The Trust is very aware of the concerns service users have in relation to the parking facilities on the Royal Victoria Hospital site and are exploring all options to alleviate this situation which we know is challenging.

I will pass on your feedback to the staff within fracture clinic and thank you gain for sharing this with us.

My name is Susan Garland and I am a Support Services manager for logistics which includes Car parking. Please accept my apologies for your recent carparking experience on the RVH sit.

The Belfast Trust encourages staff to commute to work by public transport, walking, cycling, by motorbike or to car share. Despite this, the demand for carparking by staff exceeds the limited amount of carparking available on each site – particularly on the RVH site. Allocated carparking for staff reached capacity a number of years ago with many staff on a waiting list for carparking for up to 3 years. As a consequence, staff often park in the public carparks and pay the daily tariff and this impacts on spaces, especially in the main visitors carpark. This can add to the anxiety that many patients and their families may already be experiencing and leads to understandable levels of frustration.

To ensure that available staff parking provision is targeted towards those in greatest need, the Trust recently agreed to apply carpark access criteria for staff. The pandemic delayed the rollout of the new criteria but the system has now gone live on the BCH site and will roll out to the Mater and RVH sites soon. This will result in more spaces being available for patients and their families. The Trust also operate a free Park N Ride from Blacks Road to the RVH for staff to try and alleviate some of the pressures of carparking on this site. The Trust is also preparing for the Hospital Charges Bill coming into effect in May 2024. This Bill will result in tighter controls around access to visitor carparks and will alleviate the current carparking queues.

I hope the above explains some of the measures being taken to improve parking for patients and their families. Please feel free to contact me if you have any further issues relating to carparking and my apologies again for your recent experience.

Kind regards

Susan.