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Care Opinion

Parking at DCH

Posted By JSG

"Parking at DCH"

About: Dorset County Hospital / General surgery

(as the patient),

I attended an outpatient appointment today, arriving by car. I was surprised to find car parking is now entirely controlled by paybyphone. I didn't expect cash payment to be possible, but anticipated contactless payment, as with so many other businesses at the moment.

I don't often carry a mobile phone, but in fact did have one with me. I tried repeatedly to set up a paybyphone account, but their connection kept failing, and I had to give up. I'm now in touch with them direct in order to sort out this issue.

I want to draw to your attention the fact that their service is not reliable, but more importantly, that hospital users may not know that the payment method has changed. Some visitors may not have a mobile phone at all. Others, like me will be faced with setting up an account. Your Information for Patients leaflet was enclosed with my appointment details, and although it has been updated to cover Covid, it doesn't warn car park users of the change to payment arrangements.

How did I feel? Annoyed.

On a positive note, my appointment was handled very well and on time.

How did I feel? Very satisfied!
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Responses

Response from Alison Male, Head of Patient Experience & Public Engagement, Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust 3 years ago
Alison Male
Head of Patient Experience & Public Engagement,
Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Submitted on 12/08/2020 at 17:14
Published on Care Opinion at 17:14

Hello JSG, thank you for leaving your comments and I'm sorry you have had difficulties with the parking arrangements at Dorset County Hospital.

I will suggest that future updated patient leaflets include information about the car parking arrangements and I will give your feedback to the Facilities team who manages the car parking.

If you would like to discuss this in further detail please do not hesitate to contact me on 0800 7838058 or via email on pals@dchft.nhs.uk.

Best Wishes

Alison Male

Patient & Public Engagement Lead

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful

Update posted by JSG (the patient)

I followed up this issue with the paybyphone organisation. They are careful to point out that they only act as third party payment agents. I'm not sure if you contract out your parking arrangements to them, or to a business which simply manages parking, which in turn subcontracts the payment arrangements to paybyphone.

Whatever the case, when I tried to set up an account with them by phone, standing out in the car park, paybyphone's system kept shutting me down. In one of the garbled pre recorded messages that I heard, they seemed to want debit card details. I may have misheard this. However, if they do require debit card details, this could easily present problems, as most people probably only carry a credit card and not a debit card.

When they responded, they explained that their system only responds when the caller's phone setup suits their system, and that there are conflicts. I can forward their email if you like. It really seems to be a very user unfriendly arrangement, which perhaps you need to check on. Or am I the only person with a problem?

I also had a conversation with the DCH employee who runs the parking arrangements on a day to day basis. He told me that there is in fact a cash payment machine in the main building. This fact isn't indicated in your patients notes, or on the machines in the car park, so confusion reigns. But it's not difficult to remedy.

Response from Alison Male, Head of Patient Experience & Public Engagement, Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust 3 years ago
Alison Male
Head of Patient Experience & Public Engagement,
Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Submitted on 28/08/2020 at 11:21
Published on Care Opinion at 11:21

Thanks for your response JSG, yes please if you could forward the email from paybyphone and I will liaise with our facilities department who cover the car parking, the best email address is pals@dchft.nhs.uk

Many thanks

Alison

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Update posted by JSG (the patient)

Copy of email being sent separately.

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