PeFe wrote:Will wrote
Most patients are sick, debilitated and elderly. Such people often find it hard to walk several hundred metres to catch public transport.
Patients arrive at hospitals by ambulance, taxi or relatives drive them there. Sick people do not drive themselves to hospital wanting to park the car.....you could be there for days and so could your car, incurring a huge cost.
Furthermore, hospitals operate on a 24 hour basis. Our public transport is not 24 hours. Not to mention the potential impact on patient safety if on-call doctors do not have somewhere to park in the case of an emergency.
Yes and no....nurses shifts ( and I presume doctors as well) start at 7-30am, 2pm and 10/11pm.
Doctors work set hours..its up to them to arrive for work on time.
These new car parks will be used by non-sick people (probably better paid health professionals and visitors) They are not intrinsic to the operation of the hospital.
I actually work in a hospital, so I feel I have a grasp of how things work in one.
Yes, critically ill patients arrive by ambulance. However, you have failed to consider all the people who come for outpatient clinics or day cases.
With the exception of junior doctors and ED doctors, most senior doctors do not work set hours. Private hospitals are run mainly by private specialists, whom come in at sporadic hours based upon the needs of their patients. Furthermore, you have failed to explain the implications of on-call doctors having to waste time parking several blocks away, or God-forbid having to catch a bus when called in for an emergency.
Also, consider the nurses doing the overnight shift. Many nurses at the WCH do not feel safe walking alone at 11PM to work. Angas Street is pretty dead and lonely at night. I can foresee the same problems happening here.
Whilst I get your argument of trying to reduce car-dependency in Adelaide, one must also be pragmatic enough to put aside ideology and realise there are certain cases where carparking is warranted. A hospital is one such case.
