Derriford Hospital Car Parking

We do not have a choice in parking in hospital car parks there are no alternatives because we start work at 07.30 and finish at 20.00 . The George park and ride buses stop running at 19.15, Other buses are infrequent for early starters and late finishers or weekend workers. Our usual finish time is very variable due to work pressures and emergencies meaning we rarely get away on time when we would miss busses and have long waits for next one. After a 12 1/2 hour shift we just want to get home as soon as possible because we usually work several days in a row. Car sharing is almost impossible too because of the varying finishing times and not working with the same people, this would need to be made into a large pool to work and is probably easier for office based staff who have a more reliable finishing time.

The price is going up by double at least and our salaries have been frozen for several years how is this fair. We did not ask the hospital to sell off car parks and then rent them back at increasing rates.

We continue to give our vast skills to our patients and their families and not only are we expected to work through breaks and often finish shifts late now our salaries are going to be squeezed even more by rising car parking costs, if we strike we are told we are putting our patients at risk so we are expected to just get on with it this rise is the final straw. With the car park rises and the Tamar bridge cost rising I know nurses who are going to leave as it is not worth working which will put even more pressure on those of us left?

Please re consider these ridiculous increases.