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Needless to say we are not impressed

Posted By JK100A

"Needless to say we are not impressed"

About: Outpatients Services / Eye Outpatients diagnostic unit [EODU]

(as a relative),

I took my mother to her EODU appointment in the Royal Victoria Hospital, which I was shocked with. We left 30 minutes to park and attend my mother’s appointment which was not long enough. It took 30 minutes alone to park. The car parks are scattered and after unfortunately ending up at only ‘staff carparks’ finally we found a carpark but the queue was dreadfully long. We parked but had no idea how to get to where the appointment was, my mother finds it hard to walk and found it was going to be a 10 to 15 minute walk to the EODU department.

I find this absolutely atrocious, my mother was very stressed at the thought of missing her appointment and occurring a fine. Needless to say we are not impressed with The Royal Victoria Hospital.

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Responses

Response from Michelle O'Halloran, Manager, Patient Support Services, BHSCT last week
Michelle O'Halloran
Manager, Patient Support Services,
BHSCT

Submitted on 31/07/2025 at 13:01
Published on Care Opinion at 13:01

Good afternoon

My name is Michelle O`Halloran and I am a Support Services Manager in Patient & Client Support Services with responsibility for carparking. Thank you for your feedback. Please accept my sincere apologies for your recent carparking experiences on the Royal site.

The majority of patient/visitor RVH carparking spaces, in both our Main Visitor and RBHSC public carparks, are taken by staff who pay the public rate to park each day and this impacts on access for our patients and visitors. The Belfast Trust encourages staff to commute to work by public transport, walking, cycling or to car share. Despite this, the demand for carparking by staff exceeds the limited amount of carparking available – particularly on the RVH site. 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 are targeted towards those in greatest need, the Trust agreed to apply carpark access criteria for staff. The new staff permit system is already in place on the Belfast City Hospital site and is being rolled out to the Royal Victoria Hospital now. This will result in more spaces being available for patients and their families. In the interim, the Trust provide a free Park and Ride service from Blacks Road to the RVH from 7am to 6:30pm on weekdays.

I have checked with the management team in Appointments and they have advised that there should be information on the letter reference the current carparking queues – see below. Please do get in touch if this is not on the letter your Mother received so I can update Appointments on this.

Patients and visitors who require support on the RVH site to get about can also avail of support, booked in advance, and free from Shopmobility which is located in the Main Foyer. Their staff can also arrange to meet at the Shopmobility unit in the main carpark. To access this service you need to register once with Shopmobility which takes about 15 minutes. For more information contact info@shopmobilitybelfast.co.uk or 07385 941991..

I will also raise with colleagues with reference to the signage issues you experienced on the RVH site.

Please accept my apologies again.

Regards

Michelle O`Halloran

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