9:50am Monday 6th July 2009
By James Connell
HEALTH bosses are considering two possible sites for car parks to reduce parking problems at Worcestershire Royal Hospital but have declined to give more details.
They hope the extra spaces will reduce pressure at Worcester’s main hospital.
Leaders at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust were asked to consider the issue by health watchdog member and Worcester city councillor Roger Berry at a recent trust board meeting at Kidderminster Hospital.
Phil Milligan, the trust’s chief operating officer, said at the meeting: “Our estates team are looking at two sites. It is too early to say more.”
Your Worcester News contacted the communications department to find out more information about the sites under consideration and details of how many spaces would be provided if the plans went ahead and how much it would cost. A spokesman said he could not reveal any more information.
We have already revealed how long-suffering residents complain that ‘access only’ roads near to the hospital are treated like an ‘overflow car park’.
Equally, staff and pat-ients have complained that they cannot find a space in the hospital and have no choice but to park in adjacent roads. The worst-affected are Linksview Crescent, Aconbury Close and Leopard Rise.
Your Worcester News has also reported how health chiefs have ruled out plans for a £11 million multi-storey at the hospital site in Charles Hastings Way which may have helped.
Mr Milligan said he would rather the cash was spent on things which benefited the health of pat-ients, including radiotherapy for cancer patients, MRI scanners, CT scanners and improvements at the county’s other main hospitals, the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch and Kidderminster Hospital.
Mr Milligan hopes staff at the Royal will be able to use 200 car parking spaces at Sixways Stadium in Worcester by October, freeing up more spaces for patients.
Coun Berry, who is also a member of Worcestershire County Council’s health overview and scrutiny committee, said he hoped hospital chiefs would be able to resolve the problem and use land near the hospital at an industrial park at Worcester Woods for parking which he said would become increasingly important as the population of the city grew.
He said: “I would welcome any potential sites for car parking.
“We need to have a hospital that will meet the needs of an expanding south Worcestershire population. To be fair, they are beginning to admit that the hospital is too small for current needs so clearly too small for future needs.”
Hospital bosses have already doubled the number of car parking spaces from 600 to 1,200 since the hospital opened in March 2002.
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