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Parking woes continue at Kincardine hospital By Liz Dadson |
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Problems continue with the parking gates at the Kincardine hospital, part of the South Bruce Grey Health Centre. The complaint comes from a member of the public who attended the Nov. 18 "free" flu shot clinic and was required to pay a $3 parking fee to get out of the parking lot. In previous years, the parking gates were left up during these clinics. When asked about the problem, health centre chief executive officer Paul Davies replied that in the past, he had always received a request from the doctors' offices to keep the gates open for the flu clinic, but this year he had not received any requests or dates when the clinic was happening. "I have no problem opening the gates for the flu clinic if that promotes more individuals getting the shot," he said. Stephanie Hallam-Hartwick, office manager at the medical clinic, said a list of the flu clinics was sent to Margaret Connolly, registration and revenue manager for the health centre. Connolly responded by saying that the health centre now offers the first 30 minutes of parking for free, so "we hope that most of your flu clinic patients will be able to exit the parking gate within this time frame. All parking beyond the 30 minutes is a $3 fee per exit. The only exceptions to this are for persons working at the hospital on a volunteer basis and the approved free parking extended to veterans." When confronted with this information, Davies apologized and said he had forgotten about the 30-minute free parking now available at the Kincardine hospital. "That is the policy," he said. "Sorry for the inconvenience." Nov. 18's clinic was conducted by public health nurses, instead of staff of the Kincardine Community Medical Clinic. There was a long line-up at the start of the flu shot clinic and at least four nurses doing the needling. The complainant said that once receiving the flu shot, people were encouraged to remain for about 10-15 minutes to ensure no nasty reactions to the needle. While most of the people were filling out the paperwork standing in line to save time, it was ridiculous to think that anyone could park his car, walk to the clinic, do the paperwork, line up for a nurse, then wait for about 10 minutes just in case, walk back to the car and exit, in under 30 minutes. The public health nurses were also required to pay the $3 parking fee.
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Wednesday morning, Davies told the Kincardine Times
that if the health centre returned to the gates that automatically
lifted when a vehicle came in, there would be no 30-minute free parking
anywhere in the parking lot. He also noted that revenue has, in fact, gone down because people are able to conduct their business in less than 30 minutes and don't pay a fee. In response to a letter from the Kincardine Physicians, regarding critical cases being rushed to the emergency room at the hospital, Davies said he would expect people to treat that the same as coming up on a red light on the roadway. "If you're dealing with a really critical situation, you do what it takes." He added that the
health centre is considering a voice monitoring system that would
direct people on what to do, ie. "push the green button and take a
ticket" upon entrance to, and exit from, the parking lot. Improved lighting is also
being considered so the parking gate units are easier to see, he said. Scrolling stops when you move your mouse inside the scroll area. You can click on the ads for more
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