Complaints continue to roll in about parking at Canberra Hospital. The facility claims to offer more than 5,000 spots for patients and staff, but regular visitors say finding a space can be extremely difficult at times, particularly for people with serious health conditions.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00Wanda says she has no choice but to park illegally when she heads to Canberra Hospital.
00:07And it's not just because it's hard to find a car spot.
00:11If I get booked, I'm just going to fight it. I've had enough.
00:14She schedules extra time for parking on top of her commute from Goulburn.
00:19Leaving her 90-year-old mother with dementia alone to find a spot is not an option.
00:24She's going to get frustrated. She's going to get worried.
00:28She's going to think that she's lost.
00:31Angela, who needs disability parking, also finds getting to the hospital a challenge.
00:36Arguing spots are too far from her appointments.
00:40It's just such a long way from parking.
00:44And for people who have chronic illness or heart disease, or at risk of falls.
00:49In a statement, Canberra Health Services says there's more than 4,200 car parks at the hospital
00:55and a courtesy bus that loops the campus every 15 minutes,
00:58with staff encouraged to use the parking provided off-site.
01:01But despite the recent expansion of the hospital,
01:04CHS says just 30 additional spots have been made available,
01:07with 79 more under construction and nearly complete.
01:11But some patients, like Wanda and Angela,
01:14say the hospital's parking should have been better designed in the first place.
01:18We have an ageing population.
01:20We have a lot of baby boomers.
01:24Many of those need extra care.
01:27Many of them are disabled.
01:29There's many disabled young people too.
01:32The ACT government says it's looking at ways to deliver more parking in the short and long term.
01:37It will also introduce a dedicated wheelchair collection point
01:40that will take up to 12 months to complete, and a new bus stop.
01:44While the opposition says they'll be responding to community concerns
01:48with an announcement closer to the October election.