"Length of Visit and parking charges"

I arrived at the the A&E Sunderland Royal Hospital at 9.35am, parked up for 2 hours, was seen by the triage nurse very quickly then waited an hour to be seen by another nurse who took bloods.

1/2 hour later the sister came and advised they were waiting to get me to the ward for the Doctor. I was given steroids at this point. 10 minutes round to the ward and although the nursing staff were very efficient, I then waited 4 hours for a doctor to tell me I could go with a prescription of steroids and anti-histamine tablets.

Waiting in a hospital for 6 hours is bad enough, but then to come out and try to pay for the extra hours was almost impossible. I finally managed to pay for the extra hours, as the message I got back was I could park til 8.20 the same day.

If the hospital is going to charge parking by the hour they need to adopt a ticket on entry with payment on exit.