"Disabled spaces some distance from Tower View"

Good afternoon

We are very sorry to hear of your experience when coming to the Royal Cornwall Hospital recently and, in particular, your difficulties parking around the Tower Block. As you will be aware, there is a considerable amount of building work taking place presently, coupled with unprecedented pressures on our Emergency Department. Both are putting additional pressures on parking spaces at the hospital site.

Ordinarily, we have a number of accessible parking spaces allocated to the east of the Emergency Department, which are the closest to the Tower Block / Eye Unit entrance. These spaces are currently being used for the overflow of waiting ambulances; however, the Trust is working hard to reduce ED / ambulance drop off waiting times and there is every intention of re-providing these accessible parking spaces within the next few weeks.

The new Tremenel Unit, currently nearing completion, will be open mid-to-end October at which time the hoardings will be taken down. This will mean that some accessible parking spaces can be re-provided around the Princess Alexandra Wing (PAW) Maternity Unit together with a new level pavement leading from the PAW around to the Tower Block. The old Tower Block entrance, situated behind the new Tremenel Unit, will be reserved for ambulance pick and drop off (linked to patient discharge) as well as provide essential access for emergency fire vehicles to reach the Tower Block.

Thank you again for your feedback. The hospital’s car park team consults regularly with the Estates Team, the outsourced car park management provider and with the Trust’s Accessibility Advisory Group to seek to improve our parking on site

Best wishes

Carolyn Garman

Thank you for taking the time to give us your opinion as we truly appreciate your feedback. We would love to contact you in future to help us inform decisions about our services and the way we work. This could range from small queries to larger projects so that you can be involved as much or as little as you like.

If this is something you would be interested in please contact the Patient Engagement Team at Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust on rcht.patientengagement@nhs.net or telephone 01872 252793, so that we can record your details.

Thank you again for taking the time to tell us about your experience.

Best wishes,

Holly