11 April 2007

Simon said no to pay and display parking at the Hospital

| johnboy
Join the conversation
26

This morning Katy Gallagher was talking to the ABC and admitted that if you are going to have pay parking at a hospital then maybe it isn’t the brightest idea ever to expect people in need of the hospital to guess when they arrive how much money to load into a pre-paid voucher. At some point in the future she’d like to fix it but hey, it’s not like she’s ever responsible for anything so why start now?

Later today Brendan Smyth dropped the bombshell out of his FOI gleanings that Simon Corbell also thought pay and display was a piss poor idea for a hospital (see the note above).

It appears that the only reason they pushed on with pay and display was because it would make them more money, to some considerable degree from suffering people who wouldn’t know how long they’d need to budget for.

Well done Simon for having the decency to put your opposition in writing. It’s just a shame about the “no fuss” super-mum minister raking in the cash from the sick and suffering.

UPDATED: The ABC reports that Simon has been sent out to explain to the media that he really did support Pay and Display by the end of the process.

Join the conversation

26
All Comments
  • All Comments
  • Website Comments
LatestOldest

Well, the pay and display system was the least of my worries when I visited the hospital for a routine appointment today. Was scheduled for 11.15am, and I arrived half an hour early. Drove around, and around, and around. No parks. None. Did this until 5 minutes before my appointment, then parked in a side street.

I ended up running to my appointment [yes, they’re usually on time] which probably wasn’t so good an idea when it involved lung function testing and therefore no asthma puffer.

Anyway, what a load of crud. I’ll catch the three separate buses just to get there next time.

End rant 🙂

I just read the CT article. I can’t believe it cost them 1.5 million to set up this fiasco, and it will make 1 million a year. So so far it is still losing money, as well as upsetting ill people and devastated relatives. And it will cost them more money to do it properly with boom gates, so it will not happen anytime soon. And when/if it does, the 1.5 million they spent on setting this system up will be down the drain.

Can this lot do anything right the first time?

what about something like first 2 or 3 hours free – go to the machine, punch the button, get a ticket for 3 hours free. If you want to stay longer, you pay. If you are actually at the hospital, you have to walk back to your car after 3 hours and punch the button for another ticket – so you have a bit of hassle but can stay for free; but if you have parked there to walk to Woden or bus to Civic etc, then chances are you cant walk back to your car every 3 hours (ie 2x per day).

hospital staff, of course, get a pass to park for free.

yep.
too true.

a lot of people do seem prepared to walk a fair distance, so why not build a half price multistorey somewhere like anzac park.

putting car parking in civic would also solve the problem.

For info – ambulance insurance is only about 25.00 a year, which is worth having if one trip costs 625.00.

They should just build a nice big three storey carpark at Calvary and charge for that with a boomgate. And if you can get a free one somewhere else then good.

I cna’t believe anyone was really parking at Calvary and bussing to Civic (why not park is the streets of Ainslie and walk.) But if true, then the govt shoud provide some park and ride car parks in the area.

The whole concept of having to pay at hospital sux. Will a pay as you leave boom-gate mean I have to pay at three in the morning? And at nine in the morning when I arrived at casulty at three?? Sux Sux Sux…

To thwart the rats who work at woden, employ a few younguns for a few hours in the mornings to patrol the parking, watch who leaves and where they go, then issue tickets to the vermin. Easy, and gives more people jobs. Win – win and less stress to those who go to hospital because they are sick or have ill family.

And if the buses were more efficient, the rats could take them and not drive anyway… But that’s a whole other thread, innit.

James-T-Kirk12:56 pm 11 Apr 07

You are all mising the obvuious solution:

At the start of the day, an enterprising person purchases a number of all day tickets. As each parker comes, you distribute the tickets, and when they leave, you collect their ticket for use by the next person – And collect some money as a fee.

By the end of the day, if you have managed your ticket distribution correctly, you will have completely recovered the initial costs, as well as pocketed extra money for your trouble.

I don’t remember reading anything on the signs that says you can’t onsell or rent out tickets.

Better that cleaning windows at the traffic lights.

That pay crap is a disgrace. There’s lots of professional suites at Calvary… I went to see an orthopaedic surgeon, and underestimated the HOURS it’d take to see the guy. So I was bolting out every half hour to buy more tickets, as was everyone else. What a debacle. And where the hell else do you park?

I’ve sat in Calvary A&E then CDU, all through the night, sick kid in bed out the back, another kid curled up on my lap…6am rolls around and suddenly you have to remember to go out and feed the machine. Like you’re alert and awake after a night spent by a hospital bed. And by the way at 6am-ish the carparks are virtually empty. No need to be charging $ to park.

It’s a disgrace.

I stand corrected – however my point is still relevant. 🙂

Respekt the Che

its 6AM to 9PM every day, so it is only a revenue raising activity
even Calvary has pay parking which would not have had any “scum sucking corpse rats” to start with, which just re-inforces the idea that it is only a revenue raising activity

Johnboy you are partially right, but if that was true the pay parking would be for business hours.

This tax loving Government figured that people go to hospitals on public holidays and weekends so they have made it 9am-9pm every day even on weekends and public holidays.

Is the point of the pay parking to raise money? Or to ensure those who need to be there can get a park?

If the latter then anything other than making a loss should be acceptable. That appears not to have been the view taken by Katy Gallagher.

The current layouts of the hospitals don’t allow for boom gate parking, especially at Calvary, without spending large amounts of money to re-design what is in place or build a multi-story car park. The car parks are spread out with multiple access points. The Governments not interested in providing the funds to fix these problems.
On another note, before paid parking came in it was nearly impossible for any of the evening staff to find a car park at calvary, apparently due to people parking at the hospital and catching a bus into Civic. Since paid parking the complaints from staff have stopped.

The problem is, JB, the boomgate system costs money. The pay-parking sytem they’ve got makes money.

In an el-cheapo world like we’ve got at the moment, pick the option you’re going to go with.

Incidentally, there’s a fair bit of free 2-hour parking just outside the hospital zone at Canberra hospital (and there’s some free-range dirt parking at Calvary, as I discovered recently when visiting a friend there a number of times).

I’ve always thought the pay parking at the hospital was low but I agree that the boomgate idea is a better system if there has to be any at all.

last time I was there, I got taken by ambulance (which was $625) and the person who came to pick me up spent 7 bucks on parking.

The ticket ended up having two hours or so left on it so we gave it to someone else on our way out.

Parking at the hospital has to be paid because unfortunately there are scum sucking corpse rats who work in Woden and were filling up the hospital car parks.

But a boom gate system with real patients getting their parking validated would have killed all the birds.

I cant believe the Government wants to make money out of people misfortunes. Most of us dont choose to have to go to hospital, and we sure as hell dont choose to spend 6 hours in the ER waiting for a doctor. Not happy – they should revoke the whole pay parking at hospitals.

Good for Simon – so he does have some sense after all.

It is so sad that life in Canberra is so chaotic now, that we just accept things like people in hospital gowns out dealing with parking machines.

I’m going to the hospital tomorrow. Great to add another stress to the day — guessing how long I’ll be there — when it’s not exactly the most relaxing time to start with. I’ll let you know how much I overpay.

Who listens to health ministers anyway? Psssh.

d) Contest any fine received due to circumstances beyond your control.

So next time I need to go to hospital, shall I:
a) Drive and take a guess at parking costs… although that could be anything from 2 hours to 2 days based on my previous experiences.
b) Call for an ambulance, although the 000 line doesn’t have a good rep if media over the past year or two is to be believed.
c) Call a cab and hope the automated booking system works.

I’m pretty sure if it wasn’t his initial he’d have been saying something about it instead of refusing to comment.

Can anyone explain why the signature above ‘Simon Corbell’ on the memo is not really anything like the ‘S’ at the bottom of the written notation?

Daily Digest

Want the best Canberra news delivered daily? Every day we package the most popular Riotact stories and send them straight to your inbox. Sign-up now for trusted local news that will never be behind a paywall.

By submitting your email address you are agreeing to Region Group's terms and conditions and privacy policy.