Hospital workers slam decision to remove staff parking spaces

Exasperated workers at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary have slammed a decision to remove vital staff parking spaces which they say will add to increasing parking woes.

An anonymous letter sent to the LDRS highlighted the ongoing “parking shambles” at the Foresterhill campus.

The letter, believed to have been sent by a concerned member of staff, said the loss of valuable spaces has caused “even more misery” for employees.

The disgruntled worker even claimed that staff were not consulted about the matter.

They explained: “Staff only know about it now as the work is happening.

“The wording on announcements focused staff attention that this was a bit of a temporary flooding work and not that this was a permanent, unagreed change.

“It is being announced as flood mitigation but it isn’t just putting in some better drains but instead, massive stepped concrete water pools.”

The author of the letter went on to say parking restrictions are so bad that some staff would rather work from home if they could.

“The staff car park is a shambles,” they said.

“Anyone can park in there and spaces are also lost due to bad parking or building rubbish left in spaces that could be used.

“All this pushes even more staff into the multi-storey car park, not to mention making us late for our shifts.”

The frustrated medical worker added: “It seems our organisation is trying to make it as difficult as possible for staff to get to their work.

“If we could work from home we would as we are so sick of this.”

But the health board finally shared an official announcement about the changes to employees today.

The statement confirmed the ongoing work at Foresterhill would lead to the loss of 25 staff parking spaces.

It also clarified that the move was needed to allow essential flood mitigation works linked to the new mortuary and Greenspace projects to be carried out.

The memo read: “There is a clear need to develop an integrated water management system across the whole Foresterhill site, not only for the benefit of those on-site, but to manage wider flood impact on the Denburn.

“We know car parking on this site is a concern for many of you and we want to stress there remain 593 spaces in the shale, and a further 227 in the tarmac car park.

“In addition, we continue to share the multi-story car park with patients and visitors, from Level 6 and above.”

An NHS Grampian spokeswoman noted that the spaces have been out of use since November and no further issues with parking have been raised.

The announcement comes as NHS Grampian unveiled its plans to change the planning conditions for the Lady Helen car park last week.

If approved, staff would be officially allowed to use spaces on the sixth floor and above.

When the facility was built back in 2018, it was intended for use by patients and visitors only.

However, staff were given temporary permission to use the higher levels during the pandemic and they can still use the car park to this day.