PARKING at Shoalhaven District Hospital has reached a critical point according to South Coast MP Shelley Hancock.
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Speaking at the reopening of the newly renovated emergency department of the hospital with Kiama MP Gareth Ward, Mrs Hancock said an announcement of the promised car park would be made soon.
Promised prior to the last election, one of the sticking points seems to be whether the car park would be expanded onto the adjacent Nowra Park or be multi-level.
A multi-level car park creates problems as policy dictates, once a car park is multi-story it must be a paid facility.
“Car parking has been one of those thorny issues that we’ve had to come to grips with.”
- South Coast MP Shelley Hancock
“Gareth and I are very concerned about people who currently don’t have to pay but may have to pay in the future,” Mrs Hancock said.
“We have said all along we don’t want paid parking.
“We live in an area where obviously we have a lot of people who can’t afford to pay those exorbitant prices that are charged say at Wollongong Hospital.
“These are the discussions we need to have.”
She said the government provided an additional 120 car spaces prior to the last election and also made a commitment for another 220 spaces.
“We reconfigured what we had there, we’ve done some good work,” she said.
“Like everything else in this hospital, we actually need to enhance the services.
“Car parking has been one of those thorny issues that we’ve had to come to grips with.
“As we move forward to a more substantial car park we want to make sure we have the best possible access, including lift access for patients through to the emergency department or the rest of the hospital.
“And we want to make sure there are concessions, if not free parking for certain patients in this area.”
“We have said all along we don’t want paid parking.”
- South Coast MP Shelley Hancock
After being left out of negotiations over the site of the proposed Bay and Basin police station, Mrs Hancock said both she and Mr Ward wanted to have input into this proposal.
“We’ve been briefed on the masterplan process and Gareth and I would like to have some further input into car parking,” she said.
“But we have a very constrained site. We needed to get professional advice which we received when we looked at the plans.
“We originally wanted a multi-storey car park but policy is if you go multi-storey then there is a payment involved.
“That is the controversy we are both dealing with at the moment.
“You shouldn’t have to pay a fortune if you are a visitor to a critically ill patient or if you are attending the hospital on a daily basis for treatment like chemotherapy in Wollongong and other places.”
However the premier recently announced concessions for car parking to reduce that stress.
Mrs Hancock said the question of whether the car park would expand onto Nowra Park was a “difficult one”.
“If you do, it’s a long way for visitors to walk from the corner up to the hospital,” she said
It was pointed out that many visitors are parking even further away than that now.
“People have to park where they park. People have sick patients or relatives they need to drop off and if there is nowhere else to park. You can’t have them park in Hyam Street or down towards the Nowra CBD despite them doing that now, as are the nurses and medical staff as well.”