Murdo Fraser MSP has welcomed NHS Tayside holding a review of parking at Ninewells Hospital and hopes it will solve problems raised by constituents.
The Scottish Conservative politician was commenting following receipt of a letter from NHS Tayside regarding the issue of some patients being unable to find a suitable parking space at the hospital or being late for an appointment due to lack of available parking spaces.
Nicky Connor, Chief Executive of NHS Tayside, has responded to Mr Fraser’s letter and stated that the health body has recently set up a Car Parking Steering Group with full stakeholder engagement, to support a review of NHS Tayside’s parking strategy for the Ninewells site in Dundee.
Commenting, Mr Fraser said: “I welcome NHS Tayside stating that they will be reviewing the car parking situation at Ninewells Hospital and hope this results in action being taken to address the problems that have faced many of my constituents there. In her letter of response to me, the Chief Executive of NHS Tayside goes into detail about the present parking arrangements at Ninewells, which is fair enough, but patients who have experienced delays or had to miss appointments because they couldn’t find a parking space want action taken on this long-running issue.
“Some constituents previously contacted me to say that they had to drive around the car parking site at Ninewells for an hour in trying to find a space, and then they would worry about missing vital appointments at the hospital. The parking issue leads to staff at the hospital being frustrated as many patients blame this issue for always being late for appointments.”
Mr Fraser continued: “The parking problem has definitely worsened in recent years at Ninewells. It is clear that for constituents who live in Perth and Kinross there are simply not the viable public transport alternatives to using their cars to get to and from the hospital. Hopefully the results of the parking review will lead to changes that will benefit constituents.”
