A CRACKDOWN on "inconsiderate" drivers who park on double red lines at Glan Clwyd Hospital has started.
On Monday, July 17, emergency double red lines around the Bodelwyddan based hospital became protected; Any vehicles parked on them will be issued with Parking Infringement Notices.
Red lines have been refreshed and signs have gone up around the hospital site warning patients and visitors not "stop".
Hospital bosses have been left no choice but introduce the measures as the amount of people parking on double red lines has become "chaotic".
This is not only causing problems for emergency vehicles and patients trying to attend outpatient appointments but also "blue-light" ambulances.
Rhodri Morgan, head of operations at Glan Clwyd Hospital who looks after site management, patient flow and the infrastructure around the hospital, said: "On occasions, we have had about 15, 16 cars occupying the front of the hospital. All were parked on the double red lines.
"One of the instances we did face was a blue-light emergency vehicle having to stop due to the congestion.
"It if was my relative in the back of an ambulance, I'd hate to think they were being delayed by something as easily solved as considerate parking."
As well as red lined routes, infringement notices will be placed on any vehicles parked across the zebra crossing and in allocated disabled sections without the necessary blue badge displayed.
The notices do not carry a penalty but it is hoping the move will appeal to the "better of nature" of drivers.
Mr Morgan said: "We have limited parking spaces across the site and one of the key things that we strive to do as an organisation is patient safety.
"Following a WAS (Welsh Ambulance Service) incident, we have decided to re-paint all the emergency red lines. We have repainted them and put notifications round to stop people from parking there.
"This is going to stop the need for ambulances to slow down and with cars parked on the side there, that really could happen.
"Worst case scenario, if this issue doesn't get resolved, is that if we had a cardiac arrest en route in a blue-lighted vehicle and it has to stop or slow down to allow other cars to pass, it could impact patient harm. That is something we want to avoid as much as we can.
"There could be a life or death situation - absolutely."
Mr Morgan said hospital bosses did emphasise with drivers and were "appreciative" of the anxiety brought on by not being able to park.
"The [infringement] notices politely request that the cars are removed across any of the red lines," Mr Morgan said.
"We have got a small team that will be reviewing the site. They will be walking round etc and putting infringement notices on cars and politely reminding everyone of all the other spaces we have got towards the back end of the hospital.
"If we see repeat offenders, there is nothing we can do in terms of enforcement but we are in talks with the local authority to bring enforcement onsite which would then result in potentially fixed penalty notices etc. It would be the latter stages of what we would want to do. If we could appeal to everyone's better nature, and keeping those key areas flowing, while we work in the background to re-provide any additional car park spaces by moving containers around, moving portacabins and rehousing staff and also potentially bringing in a multi-storey car park and the return of a park-and-ride as well.
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"We can emphasise and understand the anxiety if someone is late for an appointment etc and people are parked in inappropriate areas or cars are parked in disabled bays but don't display the disabled signs, we can appreciate that.
"We ask people to bear with us as we go through the whole process of bringing back parking on-site. We are hoping that in due course we are going to have quite a lot of movement but our main priority is patient safety and we have got to maintain the red lines through and avoid any unnecessary accidents."
Patients and visitors to Glan Clwyd Hospital are being advised to set off "earlier than usual" for appointments and are urged to explore other options when travelling to the site such as using public transport or being dropped off and picked up for appointments or when visiting friends and relatives in hospital.
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