FED-UP staff at Glasgow’s flagship hospital are calling on NHS bosses to abolish parking permits amid claims ‘militant attendants’ are causing chaos for exhausted workers.

Medics at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Govan have raised fresh concerns about the parking crisis there, saying most spaces are gone by the time they arrive to start shifts.

Employees say bays remain empty in the multi-storey car parks but that these are being declared off limits by parking attendants, who are denying doctors and nurses without designated permits access – instead telling them to "find parking off-site" or "speak to the union".

Staff also claim that their cars are being ‘damaged and keyed’ as they scramble to find spaces in surrounding streets.

One source told the Glasgow Times: “It’s time to get rid of onsite parking permits as it’s only senior management who are given them. The scope is so narrow that most doctors, nurses, cleaners, porters and admin staff just don’t stand a chance of finding somewhere to leave their cars.

“Spaces are normally available on the top floor of the multi-stories, but staff can’t get past the attendants at the entrances to get to them. They are militant in their handling of the problem and just order staff to park off site. This is causing congestion in surrounding streets and residents living nearby are sick of it.

“Staff have no option but to come in hours before their shifts start to try and find somewhere to leave their car. This is affecting the morale of an already exhausted workforce and having a knock-on effect on patient care.”

Glasgow Times: the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Govan the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Govan (Image: Newsquest)

We previously told how bosses reintroduced parking attendants at all Glasgow hospital car parks after Covid restrictions in a bid to allow patients to receive more visits.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde decided to issue fixed penalty notices to patients and visitors who spend more than four hours in free to use facilities - despite the Scottish Government saying it was scrapping parking charges at all the country's hospitals.

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Another source, a long-serving nurse, added: “Our only option is to try and get to the hospital several hours before starting a shift or before 8am when the attendants come on duty. This means a nursery or school drop off is now impossible. It hits low paid staff the most and it is difficult to get public transport when you are working a 12-hour rota and sometimes finish after-dark. It has become a complete fiasco."

A spokesperson for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: “We understand that some staff have expressed concerns around the reintroduction of managed parking controls across a number of NHSGGC sites.

“These measures have been brought in to ensure patients, visitors and staff have fair access to designated bays and to allow traffic to be managed safely during peak times.

“During peak times, we operate a fair usage policy of a maximum stay of four hours for patient and visitor spaces, this is to mitigate against the misuse of spaces, particularly at our city centre sites, by people who are not using the hospital.

“Only where parking has exceeded four hours, a car has been parked outwith a dedicated space, or in an unsafe manner, would an unauthorised penalty notice (UPN) be issued. The maximum stay policy does not apply to any staff spaces and staff are free to park there for the entirety of their shift. Each site provides an allocation of staff parking which is split between permit and non-permit spaces.”

NHS bosses say that the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital has over 1000 spaces for staff permit holders and a further 700 spaces for those who don’t have a permit.

The spokesperson added: “NHSGGC staff have access to a dedicated NHSGGC Travel Planning team, who provide travel planning guidance and support to staff on a wide range of alternative travel planning options and active travel initiatives including personalised travel pans. Additionally, NHSGGC operate inter site staff shuttle bus services on a Monday to Friday basis, with transport links across a number of NHSGGC sites.

“NHSGGC also have a fleet of pool cars which are accessible to NHSGGC who are required to travel between sites as part of their work commitments.”