AMBULANCES IN HOSPITAL FINES BLITZ

Published: 12 August, 2010
EXCLUSIVE by JOSH LOEB

AMBULANCES are being hit by parking fines totalling thousands of pounds while helping patients get to and from hospitals.

A company contracted to transport the ­elderly and unwell across the borough has lodged an official complaint with the Town Hall after the number of parking tickets it received shot up in recent months.

There is mounting anger among ambulance drivers who say many of the tickets have been issued in the streets around University College London Hospital in Euston.

A video clip has been passed to the New Journal of a warden appearing to ticket an ambulance outside the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in Queen’s Square, Holborn, on Tuesday. 

Camden Council said it has a duty to keep streets clear and had reacted to concerns flagged up by the Fire Brigade that contracted ambulances were clogging possible emergency routes.

But Door2Door, which runs the ambulance service and has a contract with UCLH for patient transport, has now asked the council to rein in the wardens. Although not emergency blue-light ambulances, its vehicles are clearly marked as ambulances with lettering on the outside and drivers often help the patients into the hospital. When they return, it is claimed, a ticket is often waiting on the windscreen.

The company is the main supplier of transport to elderly and disabled patients at UCLH, helping both private patients and those treated regularly by the NHS.

Door2Door PTS general manager Malcolm Barnes said he had made appeals to the Town Hall’s parking office over the tickets but had lost out on every occasion. He said: “We can confirm that we have had numerous parking tickets when transporting patients. We have appealed on every occasion and have lost on every occasion. We have put a complaint in to the processing manager and a copy has been sent to the chief executive on July 19. We have not had a reply.”

Door2Door PTS vehicles which do not park in designated bays may be at risk of being ticketed – but one driver the New Journal spoke to said the bays at UCLH were only capable of holding around eight ambulances and that there could be as many as 30 operating around the hospital on any given day.

Alex Henney, General Secretary of Camden-based London Motorists Action Group, called the ticketing “bizarre”.

He said: “It illustrates the council’s wish to generate revenue inappropriately.”

There has been concern about parking provision around UCLH ever since the hospital opened in 2005. 

A Camden Council press official said the Town Hall did not ticket vehicles clearly identifiable as belonging to the “blue-light” emergency services but that the council had received complaints from the Fire Brigade about roads close to the hospital becoming ”blocked up” with ambulances. The Fire Brigade confirmed it has flagged this up.

The council’s press official said: “We allow ambulances belonging to private healthcare providers to park on yellow lines around UCLH for a short period of time if they are there for essential purposes, such as picking people up or dropping them off. However, we found that some ambulances were parked on yellow lines in the area for longer periods without an obvious reason.

“We are now monitoring the problem, and where possible enforcement officers speak to the drivers of the vehicles and encourage them to move on if they are not engaged in picking up or dropping off patients.”