"Nowhere to park at new hospital"

Dear H21

Thank you for your feedback about your experience at the new Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary. I am sorry to hear that you experienced problems with car parking and also that you found the environment of the ward to be cold and uncomfortable. It would be helpful to understand a bit more about this and I would welcome the opportunity to discuss this with you further. You can contact me on 01387 272733 or dumf-uhb.PatientServices@nhs.net.

The Board acknowledge that the parking situation in the first few days of the opening of the new hospital were poor, and for this we apologise.

We envisage the issues experienced to be short-term and have already seen some improvement in the situation over the last few days.

There are a number of factors affecting the current availability of parking spaces:

There are still a number of contractors on site to ensure systems are operational and ensure patient safety at all times as the building beds in. There was significantly more staff present as a result of the opening of the new hospital and all annual leave was cancelled for two weeks. As staffing levels return to normal, this will reduce the number of spaces being used by staff. There is an open visiting policy in the new hospital, which means there are no particular visiting times.

NHS Dumfries and Galloway put several measures in place to mitigate the issues being caused by parking:

Staff will continue to be encouraged at all times to use sustainable travel, including bus services, cycling, walking and car sharing. Transport was provided for Administration staff in order that they could park their cars at the old hospital and be transported to the new hospital. A Traffic Management company has been employed to direct staff, patients and visitors to appropriate car parks. They are on site from 7.30 am to 5.00 pm. These contractors will also encourage no parking on the adjacent public road. Incomplete parking areas (49 spaces) are being accelerated for completion possibly using temporary surfaces. Any dangerous, inconsideration and obstructive parking on the public road will be addressed by Police Scotland. Social media will continue to be used to address the problem and encourage the actions listed above.

We believe the parking issues will diminish over this week and into the Christmas and New Year period however NHS Dumfries and Galloway are developing a contingency plan for the first week after the festive period, week commencing 8 January 2018, to address any parking issues that may arise. We are working closely with our colleagues in Dumfries and Galloway Council and Police Scotland.

Kind regards