By Marjory Inglis, health reporter

HOLIDAYMAKERS ARE abusing car parks at Dundee’s Ninewells Hospital.

They are leaving their vehicles there for two weeks and paying just £1.50 for round-the-clock CCTV monitored secure parking.

Site manager Brian Main confirmed yesterday that the selfish practice that disadvantages patients who need access to the hospital was going on.

Worse, he admitted these were not simply isolated incidents.

Car parks five and six, closest to the hospital, are already designated for the exclusive use of patients and visitors to the hospital. However, hospital bosses are well aware these spaces are being abused and they are to put in place measures aimed at protecting these spaces exclusively for the use of patients and visitors.

In a controversial decision last week, the board of NHS Tayside agreed to introduce a maximum four hour wait in car parks five and six for the current £1.50 charge, but that would rise to £15 if people without a hospital appointment stayed longer than seven hours.

They stressed no genuine patient would pay more than the standard rate, currently £1.50 a visit, even if their appointment took longer than four hours. Any excess penalty incurred in such a situation would be waived.

The board’s decision has caused a furore, with Dundee city councillor Fraser Macpherson calling on Scottish Health Minister Andy Kerr to outlaw car park charging at hospital sites. Councillor Neil Powrie described charging as a tax on illness.

Mr Main said the point of the exercise was to free up more spaces for the patients who need to get to hospital and crack down on those who selfishly abuse parking provision closest to the hospital.

“We found a very expensive-looking car parked there for just over two weeks, while the driver was away on holiday,” he said. “That was not the one and only occasion.”

He said the car park operators—private company Vinci Park who have a 30-year contract to run the car parks—monitored vehicles staying for lengthy periods and kept an eye out for the return of the drivers.

“Then they discover it’s somebody who has gone off on holiday,” said Mr Main. “Secure car parking with 24-hour CCTV monitoring for £1.50 for a fortnight. That’s not a bad deal if you can get it.

“That’s not just happened once. I’m not saying 20 cars a week park up with folk going on holiday but, from time to time, these are the sorts of things people are doing.”

Unfortunately, at the moment there’s not a lot the car park operators can do than register displeasure with the motorists involved. The notice at the entrance to the car parks, and the contract between the hospital and the commercial company, indicate that the charge is “per visit.”

Technically, holidaymakers and others treat the premises as a park and ride facility, but hospital bosses hope the new charges will put a stop to that.

Mr Main said students also abused the hospital’s car park spaces and the free bus that runs between the medical school at Ninewells and the main campus in the city.

He said non-medical students were parking at Ninewells for £1.50 to avoid more expensive charges in the city centre and hopping on the free bus to get in to town for lectures.

There was also no doubt staff were parking all day in car parks five and six because, at the moment, these car parks were regularly full up long before patients started arriving for appointments at 9 am.

Mr Main stressed the charges of up to £15 a visit planned for car parks five and six were a “disincentive” and nobody needed to pay that amount.

“It’s only 10% of the spaces we are protecting in this way,” said Mr Main. “There are still over 2000 spaces which are still going to be kept at £1.50 for a day. So the idea that we are going to be charging everybody £15 a day is nonsense.”