"Serious parking issues"

Hi My name is Susan Garland and I work in Logistics BHSCT.

Please accept my apologies for your recent car parking experience on the RVH site and how this affected attending an appointment on time. 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 car parking by staff exceeds the limited amount of car parking available on each site – particularly on the RVH site. Allocated car parking for staff reached capacity a number of years ago with many staff on a waiting list for car parking 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 car parking 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 car parking queues.

I hope the above explains some of the measures being taken to improve parking for patients and their families.