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"Car parking at RAH"

About: Royal Alexandra Hospital (Paisley)

(as a service user),

Sadly, following the excellent care opinion I gave the Dermatology Department here, I feel I need to make comment regarding the car park facilities and the hill from the car park at the RAH in Paisley.

Firstly, we have to drive through the barrier at a certain time in the morning, so that the car park personnel can keep tabs on the numbers. Unfortunately, they seem to deem it appropriate to generally chit chat about random stuff and do not do what they are supposed to do - keep tabs on the car park. As a disabled driver, I require the spaces near the top, but often there are cars parked here that do not have a blue badge. Now it may be possible it is a night shift worker running late, or that someone has forgotten to put their badge out, but this just shows the car park personnel are not doing their jobs.

Now if you are lucky to get a blue badge space, that's great. But if not you may have to park further down the hill. This is an issue straight away. I am not like many of the drivers here that park on the areas they are not supposed to, and I will park in a space. I then have to lug myself up the hill, which is extremely treacherous in frosty, snowy, wet, or windy weather. It puts added strain on a time that is already stressful enough. Funnily enough, go to the QEUH in Govan where it is a flat walk to and from the hospital, and you can ask for a shuttle to take you. I don't see why something similar cannot be arranged here.

The hospital is the most unappealing, unwelcoming building I have come across. The Emergency Department needs to be expanded to cope with the influx of patients I have seen on many occasions. I counted 8 ambulances outside there one day and can only  imagine how busy the department would be. That is not including the walks ins.

Come on, GGC Health Board, please get your thinking caps on, redeploy a manager or two, and get something done with the above issues. It doesn't need to be QEUH standard (mind you even that was a flop), but a lot better would be something.

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Responses

Response from Nicole McInally, Patient Experience and Public Involvement Project Manager, PEPI, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde 4 months ago
Nicole McInally
Patient Experience and Public Involvement Project Manager, PEPI,
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
Submitted on 07/12/2023 at 09:02
Published on Care Opinion at 09:02


picture of Nicole McInally

Dear Sagittajh84

Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback on Care Opinion. Firstly, I am pleased that to hear that your dermatology appointment went well.

I am so sorry to read of the difficulties you are experiencing whilst trying to park your car when attending for your appointment. We are very aware of the difficulties our patients can experience at busy times of the day when parking their cars, particularly for disabled users. We continue to work closely with Group Nexus (the external car parking company) to ensure appropriate action is taken for all vehicles parked illegally in blue badge spaces.

Given the geography of the hospital, we have tried to locate the disabled spaces as close as possible to the main clinical buildings, but at times can exceed the spaces available. If this happens when you attend hospital in the future, or if a space isn’t available near the entrance, please speak to the car parking attendants and they will try and assist.

We are currently experiencing significant demand on our services, especially in A&E, and we are working hard to try and reduce our waiting times. Please also be assured that there is a robust process for the management of ambulance queues and we work closely with the Scottish Ambulance Service.

I will share your feedback with the Facilities Team at the Royal Alexandra Hospital about having a shuttle bus available. Your feedback will also be shared with the external company who manages car parking at our hospital sites.

Thank you and take care

Nicole

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