Staff protest at Watford General Hospital (From Watford Observer)

Staff protest at Watford General Hospital

3:45pm Thursday 5th March 2009

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By Michael Pickard »

Angry hospital workers held an impromptu protest today, to vent their fury at plans to force 250 people to park in Watford town centre.

More than 100 clerical and secretarial staff from Watford General Hospital waved placards and cheered when cars and vans blasted their horns, as they displayed their disgust at being told they have lost their parking permits on site.

The Watford Observer last month reported on plans to allow 250 workers to leave their cars at Charter Place car park, to create room for clinical staff moving to Watford from Hemel Hempstead Hospital under plans to centralise acute services.

Staff received an email last week asking for 250 volunteers to sacrifice their parking permits and take up the new spaces.

But when only seven offers were received, a second email was sent from the hospital's facilities department on Wednesday evening telling workers that the decision had been made for them, based on post code and bus routes.

Unhappy staff then organised today's protest outside the main entrance in Vicarage Road, where they received noisy support from passing motorists as they waved posters stating: “Give us back our parking permits.”

They raised concerns about safety walking home late at night, issues arising from taking children to and from school, and the cost of using local bus services. Workers also claimed they hadn't been consulted about the changes.

One staff member, who asked not to be named, said: “Everyone is extremely upset. Late at night and in winter, no-one will want to walk to Charter Place.”

Another said: “It's just awful. The morale is so bad here now. We all enjoy our work but we're being pushed and pushed to the extremes. We're being ground down and we're all here for the patients. The more we put up with the worse it gets.

“There has to be a better solution than this.”

The new parking scheme was set to come into effect on Wednesday, March 11, and continue until May, when all staff will lose their permits and they will be reassigned.

Following the protest, David McNeil, Director of Corporate Affairs for West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust, said the new parking scheme would not be enforced until “any concerns have been addressed”.

Speaking to the Watford Observer, he said: “We recognise there are concerns and we have offered to meet them tomorrow (Friday) to look at all the issues and concerns they are raising. We will not do anything in the meantime.

“We don't know if we have built enough car parking spaces so until then, priority will go to clinical staff. We have increased the staff car park but until we know we have enough spaces, we are taking measures to make sure there are enough car parking spaces.”

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