THE NHS TRAFFIC WARDEN - A DOCTOR'S
NIGHTMARE
THE TALE OF DOCTOR X (A CONSULTANT)
AND UNIVERISTY HOSPITAL WALES. THEIR TRAFFIC WARDENS APCOA ARE OFCOURSE IN
THE BACKGOUND
FACTS OF THE CASE
- Dr X was employed as a locum Consultant
doctor between August 2000-February 2001.
- While working in UHW she was living in
hospital residences on site during the weekdays as she was working away
from home
- She had daily duties involved in the
care of critically ill patients in an "Intensive Care"
- She worked every day between the hours
of 08.30 and 17.30h with overnight on-call every 5th night and at some
weekends.
- She obtained a car parking permit and
parked her car in a residency car park (see map). She was not made aware
that University Hospital of Wales EXPECTED resident staff and those on
call to pay car-parking charges.
- Over a period of 6 months when she
arrived back in the evening from a hard day oncall she found a Penalty
notice attached to her car windscreen. This happened not just once, but
14 times.
- She received 14 penalty-parking notices
for parking her car in a so-called resident car park.
Each amounted to 14x£45 =
£680 + the carpaking charge of £118.60: a grand total of £748.60
personally charged to this doctor.
Naturally, Dr X refused to pay any penalty
notices, claiming these had been placed in error, that the UHW had agreed
to pay her living expenses anyway when employing her and that she had not
intentionally committed a crime that amounted these hugely inflated
penalties.
STATISTICS
THE EVIDENCE
UHW Claim number
UHW013824
UHW014412
UHW014620
UHW014683
UHW015308
UHW015494
UHW015942
UHW016102
UHW ??
UHW017118
UHW017261
UHW017732
UHW017907
UHW018102
Looking at the above serial numbers of the
penalty notices and simple mathematics, a total of 4, 278 tickets were
issued by APCOA to unsuspecting staff and visitors during the 6month
period i.e. the sum potentially accrued would be
£192, 510 (one hundred and ninety two
thousand pounds) in only in a 6month period
- That is more than a junior doctor gets
paid in SEVEN years
- That's more than a Consultant gets paid
in THREE years
- That's more than Tony Blair's annual
salary
That is a financial income charged to
their employees and sanctioned by the University Hospital of Wales and the
Department of Health. Despite the Chief Executive being fully aware of
this he continues his blessings on the activities of their car parking
agents APCOA
WHAT'S THE CUT THAT UNIVERISTY
HOSPITAL WALES MAKES? IF ANY OF THEIR MANAGEMENT KNOWS THE ANSWER - LET US
KNOW.
We quote "This accountability
will include responsibility for ensuring that resource management
decisions achieve best value for money and are compliant with the
financial systems and procedures laid down by the Trust in promoting the
efficient and economical use of resources."
How was this handled by the UHW
Management and their Car parking Agents, APCOA?
After leaving the employment, this doctor
was continued to be harassed by APCOA their Debt Collecting Agents
Roxburge International, and Graham White Solicitors (incidently
all these agents are coincidentally at the same address!)
Despite pleas of explaining her situation
and her denial that she had committed any traffic offence or intended to,
the unwanted harassment continued.
The response was Graham White
Solicitors could do nothing until they had instructions from UHW Managers
and APCOA.
UHW managers refused to do
anything because it was a private affair between staff and APCOA.
APCOA REFUSED to talk to the
Doctor concerned because they claimed "it was all entirely her fault"
During this time Dr X attempted to resolve
matters, particularly as she had better things to get on with like her
clinical work
But UHW and APCOA failed to
respond to her letters or phone-calls to resolve the situation.
14 notices kept on coming by post every
month.
March
April
May
June
In August 2001 Court Summons was issued
August Chief Executive UHW was asked to
intervene - he passed it on to his Facilities Manager- his Facilities
Manager passed it on to APCOA and APCOA refused to discuss anything.
September - November Court summons letters
persist
The doctor has made pleas to dismiss the
erroneously issued parking charges, but this has been denied by a Chief
Executive who doesn't care how the medical staff are treated, a Facilities
Manager who quotes regulations and claimed he investigated the situation
without even talking to the doctor concerned.
The doctor has paid UHW car parking
charges in the attempt to stop this harrassment and threats of prosecution
which has continued for almost one year.
So what do APCOA say?
"that doctor's got to learn her
lesson, we won't dismiss the penalties"
"We issue many tickets to doctors in error, and they always come and
make a special request to have it cancelled"
"It is not our intention to prosecute and make revenue by such means"
So what did Doctor X say
"I thought I had a right to park,
I was told that as a resident I didn't have to pay and that seemed logical
to me as I have worked in the NHS for 16years and never had to pay as a
Resident or during on call and besides there was nowhere to buy a 24 hour
ticket"
" I needed a car because I was oncall between 2 hospitals Llandough
and UHW which were 15 miles apart, an emergency call for me means
attending a sick premature baby, and they can't wait"
"When I tried to stop the harassment and reach a compromise I was
ignored (no response to my letters dated 3rd March, 19th March, 20th
March, 2nd April, 4th April, 22nd April), my telephone calls never
returned, and APCOA manager refused to talk to me. How am I supposed to
resolve matters.... they only wanted one thing...THE MONEY then they would
stop their action of PROSECUTION"
"Why should I be punished for HELPING the Trust as a Locum Doctor,
that is beyond reason"
What did the UHW Facilities Manager
say
"We expect all staff to pay for
their parking "please pay and display your permit"
DUTY of CARE
Is there evidence of management failing in
allowing this doctor to be issued ticket after ticket after ticket...after
all their records do hold their staff details i.e. doctor's name, and
contact number, so why not advise her during her period of employment.
Was this doctor treated like a criminal?
Would any locum doctors work under such threatening conditions again?
Is there evidence that the doctor could
have done anything more?
- Could she have parked anywhere else?
- May be she could have spent her time
knocking on APCOA office 14 times, finding it closed or begging them to
withdraw the penalty notice INSTEAD of attending to clinical work
- Could she have prematurely ended her
locum contract, and leave the hospital short-staffed?
Is it fair that staff working for the
Trust should be subjected to financial extortion by the method of car
parking penalty notices?
-
- We vote for all staff to be treated
with dignity.
- We vote that all car parking should be
made free in hospitals again and that the on-call staff should be valued
in the service they give in the health service.
THE ABOVE STORY SHOWS THAT TRUSTS CONTINUE
TO HARRASS THEIR STAFF AND ABSOLVE THEMSELVES OF ALL RESPONSIBILITY
DESPITE ORIGINAL AGREEMENTS WITH THE PRIVATE PARKING COMPANY.
WE WONDER WHY SO MANY DOCTORS ARE
DISILLUSIONED?
Please report your car parking experience
in the National Health Service to prevent this harassment of hard working
doctors. Email us at carparking@nhs-exposed.com
Mr Edwards has the right to take any
action he wishes. We will look forward to discussing the matter in court
or otherwise.
NHS EXPOSED WILL RETURN IN "THE NHS
TRAFFIC WARDEN - THE PATIENTS NIGHTMARE."
