Letter: Hospital car park is a problem
I was interested to read your article 'Visitors fume over Royal Shrewsbury Hospital's parking machines', as I too have been left fuming.
I encountered the new parking machines for the first time at 5am on a Sunday morning after spending a traumatic night in A&E with a family member.
The first problem was trying to remember my car registration number which I find difficult at the best of times, but at 5am after a long and worrying night, nearly impossible.
Eventually, when I did enter the number correctly, the machine required me to enter my time of arrival manually.
Well how should I know? I arrived in the middle of the night and I was too busy following an ambulance to take a note of the time. I thought the whole point of the system was that the machine would tell me when I arrived. It twice decided I was too slow in figuring this out and returned me to the start screen – that registration number, again.
On two subsequent visits I have had the same problem, they just don't work, they are sited in poorly lit areas and are very difficult to use. How are elderly people supposed to manage?
People arriving and leaving the hospital are likely to be anxious and/or upset and these parking machines create additional stress we could all do without.
The old system was simple – money in, ticket out. What was wrong with that?
John Galloway, Craven Arms
