"Problems paying for parking"

I attended the South Bristol Community Hospital urgent care centre on 21/10/18 with my daughter and granddaughter after my granddaughter had an accident.

I have visited the hospital on numerous previous occasions, both for out-patients appointments and using the urgent care facility and have always had great treatment from all staff concerned.

I have also never had any issue with paying for parking.

I find that new parking machines have recently been installed.

These have turned out to be very confusing to use and as a result I have received a parking charge notice.

I made every attempt to pay at the machine on the day of my visit.

For some reason the machine asked for £1.50 despite us being there for longer than 1 hour so there should have been a higher charge.

I received what appeared to be a receipt for the payment & left the car park.

I have subsequently received a parking charge asking for £60 -£100.

I note there are a large number of complaints to the same effect regarding parking on your review board & will be forwarding my complaints to the Patient Support & Complaints Team.

I will also be appealing the parking charge.

This is obviously due to a fault with the new machines and there are probably a large number of patients who are not aware of this review board & so may have paid the excessive charge.

This is not satisfactory.

I understand that parking at most hospitals and medical facilities is outsourced to private companies, however the charges should not be excessive & patients should not have any difficulty in paying.

When I visit Southmead Hospital, I have no trouble with the payment machines.

When I previously visited South Bristol Community Hospital, I had no trouble with the original machines, or with the recent payment arrangement where payment was made at the coffee shop.