Aintree University Hospital Foundation Trust

Experience Report

Aintree University Hospital Foundation Trust

‘Car Parking’

Compiled by Healthwatch Sefton:

Reported: April 2016

Healthwatch Sefton.

Company Ltd. by Guarantee Reg. No: 8453782

Healthwatch Sefton Registered Office: Sefton Council for Voluntary Service (CVS)

3rd Floor, Suite 3B, North Wing, Burlington House, Crosby Road North, Waterloo, L22 0LG

Tel: (0151) 920 0726 ext 240

Contents Page

Header / Page No.
Introduction / 3
Summary of Main Findings / 3-4
Background to Healthwatch Sefton / 4
Healthwatch Sefton’s Strategic Priorities / 5
How the car park project was promoted? / 5
How experiences have been collected? / 5
Anonymity / 6
Car Park Charges / 6-8
Summary of themes / 8-9
Key Trends / 10-12
Overviews of main areas / themes highlighted / 12-13
Service User suggestions for improvements / 14
Healthwatch Sefton’s questions & recommendations to the Trust / 15-16
Next Steps / 16
Appendix (1) - Experiences
Appendix (2) - Healthwatch Sefton Reporting Structure
Appendix (3) – Healthwatch Sefton Patient Experience Form

Introduction

Healthwatch Sefton andAintree University Hospital Foundation Trust work in partnership to gather patient, carer, family & friends experiences of the services provided at the Trust. Twice monthly a Healthwatch Sefton stand is held at the Trust in one of the below locations:

• Main hospital entrance
• Hotel Entrance
• Elective Care Centre reception area

The stands are rotated at various times during the day including morning, afternoons and evenings, this is to ensure a mixture of experiences are captured including out patients and in patients. The evening stands in particular are important in being able to capture the views from family, carers and friends visiting on the wards.

Through holding the stands on a regular basis one of the main themes highlighted was car parking on the hospital grounds.

Due to limited time and resources within the Healthwatch Sefton staff teamit was agreed by Healthwatch Sefton to report on experiences gathered over a 6 month period between April 2015 – September 2015.

Healthwatch Sefton promoted this area of work via Healthwatch Sefton stands, newsletter, websiteand the local press asking local people to share their experiences and views.

Summary of main findings

A totalof 60experience forms were completed and recorded within this reporting period.

Main themes highlighted were:

Car Park charges–There were 28 negative comments recorded on the cost of the car parking at the Trust and someof the service users also felt the weekly passes did not help ease the cost. Suggestions included the Trust to consider charging per visit rather than per hour. This is a system that Alder Hey Children’s NHS Hospital Foundation Trust currently has in place.

Car park spaces available –Service users commented on the lack of spaces during the day, in total there were 26 negative comments although some service users felt during early morning or evening, spaces were more available. Service users felt the front hospital car park needed a system in place to stop cars entering when the car park was full.

Blue Badge / Disabled parking –Some service users commented that they felt they found it difficult to find blue badge spaces and some felt that due to their disability they used the hospital services on a more regular basis therefore incurring more charges than someone who didn’t have a disability. In total there were 15 negative comments received within this reporting period.

Background:

Healthwatch Sefton

Healthwatch Sefton is the independent health and social care champion giving children, young people and adults a powerful voice in shaping local services. Healthwatch is here to help people get the best out of their local health and social care services - whether it’s improving them today or helping to shape them for tomorrow. Healthwatch Sefton is all about local voices being able to influence the delivery and design of local services. Healthwatch plays a role at both a national and a local level and makes sure that the views of the public and people who use services are taken into account.

Healthwatch Sefton is an independent company limited by guarantee, under the auspices of Sefton Council for Voluntary Service (Sefton CVS).

Healthwatch Sefton will;

•Promote and support the involvement of local people in the commissioning, the provision and scrutiny of local care services.

•Enable local people to monitor the standard of provision of local health and social care services.

•Obtain the views of local people regarding their needs for, and experiences of, local health and social care services and importantly to make these views known.

•Produce reports and recommendations and share them with providers, commissioners, and people responsible for managing/scrutinising local health and social care services and Healthwatch England which will influence the way services are designed and delivered.

•Influence how services are commissioned by having a seat on the local Health and Well Being Board.

•Support trained volunteers to complete Enter and View visits on health and social care services accessed by Sefton residents.

•Provide advice and information through its signposting and information service about access to local services so choices can be made about local care services.

Healthwatch Sefton’s Strategic Priorities

Healthwatch Sefton works towards achieving a number of key strategic priorities. We work to gather the views and experiences of health and social care services from the residents of Sefton and make them known to the commissioners, providers and Healthwatch England. Below are the key strategic priorities that this area of work contributed to:

• Gathering the views and understanding the experiences of patients and the public.
• Making people’s views known.
• Making the views and experiences of people known to Healthwatch England (and to other local Healthwatch organisations) and providing a steer to help it carry out its role as national champion.
• Initiating independent thematic reviews / projects that highlight emerging themes.

How the Car park project was promoted

Healthwatch Sefton promoted this piece of work via various methods to ensure as many Sefton residents as possible could take part. Below is a list of methods used:

•A local press release

•Information was shared at the Aintree University Hospital Patient Experience Exec Led meeting

•E-bulletins were distributed to the Healthwatch Sefton membership

•E-bulletins were distributed to Sefton Council for Voluntary Services (Sefton CVS) and shared with all networks

• Healthwatch Sefton Website – Promoted on the primary page
• Healthwatch Sefton newsletter Summer 2015

How experiences have been collected?

The Healthwatch Sefton Experience Form was used to gather experiences (Appendix 3).

Healthwatch Sefton gathered 60separate experience forms relating specifically to car parking at Aintree University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. The gathering of experiences for this report relates to April 2015 – September 2015 although experienceshave continued to be captured and stored on the Healthwatch England National database.

Anonymity

Healthwatch Sefton has ensured no persons have been identified in anyway when producing this report. Where a person may be identified through an experience shared measures have been taken to ensure anonymity is maintained.

Car Parkcharges

Car parking charges at hospitals across England have increasinglybeenhighlighted by local Healthwatch’s, Healthwatch England and the press due to the charges in place. A recent article by Granada in December 2015 stated that ‘Northwest hospitals make millions in car park charges’. Aintree were also quoted by the Mirror as being one of eight Trusts across the Northwest to make between £2 million and £3 million a year. For further details please refer to the following links;

A comparison table can be found below on the charges for a selection of Merseyside hospitalsmost regularly used by Sefton residents:

(Please note details have been taken from each of the hospitals webpage 26/02/2016)

Hospital / Charges / Concessions / Reclaiming parking fees
Aintree University Hospital Foundation Trust / Up to 30 minutes – Free
30 minutes to 1 ½ hours - £3.00
1 ½ hours to 2 ½ hours - £4.00
2 ½ hours to 3 ½ hours - £4.50
Over 3 ½ hours - £5.50 / Free parking is offered to patients receiving cancer treatment and any patients who require regular, lengthy and prolonged visits.
Patients will qualify if they visit the hospital at least once a fortnight, for more than 3½ hours and for a period of more than six months.
These concessions have to be authorised by ward or clinic managers
Relatives and visitors can obtain a “saver ticket” for unlimited parking at a cost of £17.50 per week. / Not stated on website.
Southport & Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust / Less than 20 minutes: Free
20 minutes – 2 hours: £2.90
2 – 4 hours: £3.50
4 – 8 hours: £4.30
More than 8 hours: £5.30 / Frequent visitors, passes are available for £10 a week or £30 for three months plus a £10 refundable deposit. / Outpatients claiming one or more of the following benefits may be able to reclaim the parking fee:
Income Support
Working Tax Credit (and have been issued with a Tax Credit exemption certificate and card)
Income based Employment and Support Allowance
Guaranteed pension credit
Or have a valid HC2 or HC3 certificate.
The Royal Liverpool & Broadgreen University Hospitals
( Prices refer to Royal Liverpool hospital) / Up to 2 hour £3.40
Up to 4 hours £4.20
Up to 6 hours £7.00
Up to 24 hours £9.00
(Note: Car parking is off site) / Not stated on website / Not stated on website
The Royal Liverpool & Broadgreen University Hospitals (prices refer to
Broadgreen Hospital) / ​Up to 2 hours​£2.40​
​Up to 4 hours £2.90
Up to 24 hours £5.90 / Not stated on website / Not stated on website
Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust / Per visit £2.00 / If you are a regular visitor, you can purchase a discounted multi-visit ticket at the cash office costing £10 for ten visits. / There’s a drop-off zone at the main East Prescot Road entrance.
There’s a short-stay car park for the Emergency Department at the Eaton Road entrance.
If you’re entitled to support under the hospital travel costs scheme, please take your pay and display ticket to the Cash Office on the ground floor.
Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust / 0-20 minutes - free
20 minutes to 2 hours - £2.30
2-4 hours - £3
4-6 hours - £4
Above 6 hours - £5
(free car parking can be found car park opposite ante-natal clinic) / Not stated on website / Not stated on website
Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust / Up to 2 hours - £2.70
2 to 4 hours - £3.40
Up to 24 hours - £6.70
Lost ticket charge - £6.70 / Not stated on website / Not stated on website

As can be seen from the above table there is a variable level of car park charges in place at the different Trusts and information that is available on their websites.

Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust offers car parking per visit and at the least expensive with additional facilities such as drop-off zones.

Aintree University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust along with the Royal Liverpool Hospital site are the most expensive for up to 1 ½ - 2 hours parking.

None of the above Trusts provided any information / policyon their website regarding howor if service users are able to claim back on car parking should clinics / appointments be delayed.

Summary ofthemes

60 – In total experience forms were completed and recorded within this reporting period.

Of which:

6 of the experience forms completed were positive. This was particularly around being able to find a space mainly early morning or evening and being able to access free parking.

46 of the experience forms completed were negative. Main themes highlighted include finding spaces (including blue badge spaces), cost of parking and distance between parking to the clinics.

7 of the experiences forms completed were a mixture of positive, negative and neutral.

1 of the experiences received was a neutral comment mainly offering suggestions for improvements.

Some comments have a ‘Patient Rated Score’ which can be found with the comments at the back of this report. We use the Healthwatch England Information Bank’ database to upload all the experiences and comments we receive and tag the experiences using the national system to generate themes. Healthwatch England will also access the anonymous experiences and use the information from Sefton to help generate a national picture of health and social care issues.

Please see the illustration below of the comments that have been themed into Positive, Neutral and Negative:

Trends / Positive / Neutral / Negative / Total
Availability of car parking spaces / 9 / 0 / 26 / 35
Blue Badge / Disabled Parking / 1 / 0 / 15 / 16
Cost of car parking / 3 / 0 / 28 / 31
Distance of car parking to clinics / 1 / 0 / 12 / 13
Car park pay machines / 0 / 0 / 5 / 5
Penalty tickets / 0 / 0 / 4 / 4
Shuttle Bus / 0 / 1 / 2 / 3
Free half hour parking / 0 / 0 / 3 / 3
Staff parking / 0 / 0 / 3 / 3
Public Transport / 0 / 0 / 2 / 2
Pick up / Drop off bays / 0 / 0 / 1 / 1
Time waiting at appointment (charges) / 0 / 0 / 1 / 1
Safety / 0 / 0 / 1 / 1
Total / 14 / 1 / 103 / 118

Key Trends

Positive Experiences

As can be seen from the above graph 14comments in total have been tagged as positive. 3 comments related to the cost of car parking being a positive due to them being able to access free parking. The availability of car park spaces positive comments relate to being able to find spaces in the multi-storey car park and finding it easier to park either very early morning or during the evening times.

Service Users stated:

‘It is easy to park for visiting during the evening’

‘We have been here since very early this morning (now evening). Car parking was ok at that time in the morning’

‘We have been offered free parking; they asked us at the Marina Dagleish Centre’

‘We found a space to park just out front’ (evening appointment)

Further examples of positive experiences can be found in Appendix 1

Negative Experiences:

As can be seen from the above graph103comments in total have been tagged as negative. The top 3 themes being:

Availability of car parking - below are some of the comments received:

‘Car parking is horrendous. We tried to park in spaces further away from the multi-storey and had to drive around. He ended up having to drop me off; he is still trying to park now. It is also far too expensive. When my dad was an in-patient it cost me a fortune. Time is now 3.05pm and we were trying to get here in time for 3pm visiting. He is still driving around. It is just awful’

‘Approx 6 weeks ago we came in and the car park at the front near the main entrance was full. Cars were allowed in but there were no spaces. I had to sit and wait for a space, it then went over half an hour but I could not leave my car to go and get a ticket because the ticket man was there taking pictures of cars. It wasn’t just me, there were lots of us. The multi-storey car park tells you when it is full. My wife went in for her appointment and I finally got a space after 1 hour. Why let us in when there are no spaces? My wife was looking for me. People were getting tickets as they had to get to their appointments and leave their cars’

Blue Badge / Disabled Parking – below are some of the comments received:

‘We have a blue badge. It is really difficult to get a parking place. My son has dropped me off and is trying to get one. This place is so big with nowhere to park. I attend the breathing clinic. My son has had to park in the street today’

‘The car parking is rough even with a blue badge. It was bad enough even before all the construction work. Blue badge spaces in the multi-storey have to be paid for. There are major issues in access to the pay meter at the top’

Cost of car parking - below are some of the comments received:

‘Parking here is a joke; nightmare to park and the prices. We have been coming here now for our 5th week. It costs £5.50 during a visit or sometimes £4.00. If someone is in long-term critical care they need to provide more than just the weekly passes they offer’

‘Aintree hospital car park is expensive. It costs too much money. My daughter was in there for 4 months and my son has been in for a month’

For further examples on negative comments please see Appendix 1

Overview of main areas / themes highlighted:

Positive:

Service users mainly commented that the car parking was accessible either early morning or during evening visiting. 3 of the positive comments related to service users who were able to access the parking for free including at the Marina Dalglish Centre.

Negative:

Service users mainly commented on the cost of car parking at the Trust being too expensive, this was both in relation to day parking and long term visiting to patients on wards /critical care. Service users stated they were aware of the weekly car park passes but still felt this was too expensive. The lackof spaces being available during the day was raised by numerous service users and the fact that service users had to drive around looking for spaces and how this impacted on their visit to the Trust.

The availabilityof spaces and charges in place for blue badge / disabled parking was raised as an issue. Some service users commented on having to use the services of the Trust more often due to their disability and felt they were at a disadvantage with the cost of the parking.

The NHS is currently used in the main by people with long term conditions many of whom are protected or come under the definition of disability under the Equality Act 2010. Research has shown that disabled people are far less likely to be in employment therefore more likely to be in poverty. In March 2013, the UK employment rate among working age disabled people was 49% compared with 81.8% of non-disabled people *(Disability in the United Kingdom 2014 facts and figures report). This evidence supports the views of service users who feel they are disadvantaged by the car parking costs as they are using the services on a more regular basis.