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By Marjory Inglis, health reporter
The company operating the car parks at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee is under fire again for raking in cash from the sick.
Dental expert Dr Chris Southwick is to write to the company, Vinci Park, asking it to issue change from its parking meters.
Dr Southwick was so incensed as he watched people insert £2 coins into the meters, because they did not have the exact change for the £1.60 charge, that he went to the company’s site office to complain.
He congratulated The Courier on Friday’s article estimating car park users pay over £2.3 million annually into the meters, but he believed the calculation used under-estimated the true haul.
“You didn’t take in to account the number of people who overpay and don’t get any change back,” he said.
He attended a clinic at Ninewells on Friday and—unusually—took his car.
As he normally walks to the hospital, he was unaware the parking meters do not give change.
“They are making even more profit,” he said, adding, “Quite a lot of people turned up and didn’t have the right money and were having to put a £2 coin in for a £1.60 parking space.”
Vinci Park has consistently refused to reveal its income from car parks at Ninewells.
On that basis, The Courier used publicly available information to estimate the revenue.
Our calculation does not include penalties paid to Vinci Park from the unknown number of motorists who park inappropriately or overstay their ticket—nor were we able to take account of overpayment by visitors denied change.
Dr Southwick added, “It is absolutely ridiculous—they are clearly making profit out of people’s illness.”
He said when he went to the Vinci Park office he was told Dundee City Council does not give change from its parking meters. He was advised to write to the company’s head office.
“I told the woman that Dundee City Council is not a public health authority,” said Dr Southwick.
“The people they are charging to park are going shopping—they have a choice.
“They are not going to get treatment because they are sick.”
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