Sixty seconds on . . . hospital car parking
BMJ 2018; 363 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.k4447 (Published 22 October 2018) Cite this as: BMJ 2018;363:k4447
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I congratulate Dr Stewart for not missing the opportunity to promote walking.
But, perhaps he is unaware that the National Health Service has never missed an opportunity, in the last thirty years or so:
Of cutting services and concentrating them on fewer sites.
No consideration given to:
Staff travel being made more difficult.
Patient travel being made more difficult.
Patients’ relatives’ and friends’ travel being more difficult.
EXAMPLE?
Peterborough.
A new hospital opened in 2007 in a green field site, just short of two miles away. And the same distance from the old Peterborough District General Hospital Complex.
Imagine the numbers of staff who travelled to Peterborough by train, or by long-distance buses (the main bus station is close to the old site) and who could walk to the hospital, are now obliged to alter the mode of transport - using more buses.
What I said above applies also to the travel needs of patients, their relatives and friends.
PFI was used for building this new hospital. The old hospital - main building - was only commissioned in 1969. I knew it well, having arrived here in 1974.
As Her Majesty’s Govt continues merrily to declare hospital buildings redundant and to concentrate services in fewer places, travel - on foot or by public transport - becomes more difficult.
Would anyone from Peterborough or indeed elsewhere care to counter me?
Competing interests: No competing interests
Every year the NHS faces a financial crisis. 70% of the NHS budget is spent on Long-term conditions. All of these could be improved / prevented by physical activity by some 20 - 40%. Active travel is perhaps the most sustainable means of building regular physical activity into everyday life. Achieving Dutch levels of active travel would save the NHS £17 billion (2010 prices) in 20 years*
Obviously some people need to drive but surely there is something about encouraging active travel and a leadership role for the NHS in this?
I haven't mentioned air pollution.
*Jarrett, J.; Woodcock, J. et.al (2015) Effect of increasing active travel in urban England and Wales on costs to the National Health Service. The Lancet. V379., 9832. pp. 2198-2205.
Competing interests: No competing interests
Re: Sixty seconds on . . . hospital car parking
What hospital staff run on is GOOD MORALE, it always has been and always will. It costs very little to keep staff happy: Easy (free) parking, decent meals when needed, a clean bed, and time to talk to other members of their medical and surgical teams. The patients are at the top, the doctors and nurses just below, serving their needs, and the admin staff below them serving their needs.
That's how it should be, and was in the "bad old days" when Consultants and a FEW carefully selected administrators ran the hospitals. Now the pyramid is inverted and staff feel used and exploited by a faceless system of people who are ignorant of what hospitals are FOR, and who can trot out total rot about parking charges.
TIME FOR A REVOLUTION before all the good people despair and leave.
What is the GMC doing about this? Answers on a postcard, please!
Competing interests: No competing interests