"All of the car parks were full with queues of cars waiting"

Dear sagittafe33

Thank you for taking the time to provide your feedback with regard to your recent experience of visiting Ninewells Hospital for your mother's Cardiac Rehabilitation outpatient appointment. On behalf of NHS Tayside I would like to apologise for the inconvenience caused to both you and your mother.

Ninewells Hospital has one of the largest car parks within Scotland, with 2,437 spaces available. The site can experience significant parking demands at peak times, which is a similar experience as most large acute hospitals. Over the years we have introduced a number of measures to make the best use of the space and to manage car parking effectively.

There are strict parking arrangements in place with signage in all areas outlining the parking arrangements and clear notification of penalties should a member of staff or visitor fail to comply with these arrangements.

Car parks 5, 6, 7, East Block car park and the Renal Unit car park are dedicated short-stay parking specifically for patients and visitors and are close to the entrances of the hospital. All vehicles using short-stay car parks, including blue badge holders, must clearly display a free ‘collect and display’ parking ticket. This allows a consistent turnover of spaces with a recent analysis of the short-stay car parks showing that a space is used on average four times a day by patient and visitors.

There are also dedicated patient/visitor drop-off areas close to the main entrance and long-stay parking is available for staff, patients and visitors within car parks 1, 2, 9 and the multi-storey (car park 8).

As a public sector organisation, we are committed to delivering environmental policies and targets, including the identification and promotion of alternative sustainable modes of transport. We encourage patients, visitors and staff to consider alternative ways of getting to hospital whenever possible, such as using public transport, cycling, walking or arranging to be dropped off by a relative or friend. Ninewells is very well served by local buses and has a bus terminus at the main entrance, which was developed in partnership with Dundee City Council.

We also recently reintroduced the Liftshare scheme, which encourages staff to share car journeys to work, and are finalising an active travel strategy. These are all part of a range of measures to offer information on alternatives to car-based journeys to help alleviate pressure on the finite number of car parking spaces on the Ninewells site.

NHS Tayside will continue to engage with local authorities, other NHS Boards, and travel planning and public transport organisations to help support access to our hospital facilities.

I note your comments around creative solutions for car parking and I value your feedback/suggestions.

I hope the above provides reassurance that NHS Tayside continues to work proactively to effectively manage parking on the Ninewells site.

With best wishes

Billy Alexander

Associate Director of Facilities

NHS Tayside

Dear sagittafe33,

On behalf of the Cardiac Rehabilitation Physiotherapy team, thank you for your feedback.

I am delighted to hear you found the member of staff to be excellent. I am sorry to hear the difficulties you had with the car parking and you will have received the response from the Associate Director of Facilities.

Should you, or your Mum have any further questions regarding her physiotherapy appointment, please do not hesitate to contact us directly. Otherwise, the physiotherapist will be in touch as discussed at your Mum's appointment.

Best wishes

Fiona

Fiona Brownlie

Team Lead Physiotherapist (Cardiac Rehabilitation)