QMC car park a 'pointless lighthouse'
A CLOSED car park at the Queen's Medical Centre has been dubbed "a pointless urban lighthouse" because the lights are being left on all night.
The multi-storey car park was closed in September after hospital bosses feared it may collapse.
Even though no one is using it, bosses have been forced to keep the lights on for health and safety reasons.
A spokesman for the Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the QMC, said it cost £60 a week to keep the car park lit.
He said: "We take patient, visitor and staff safety extremely seriously.
"On closure of the multi-storey car park in September, 2008, to ensure that the safety and security systems were effective the Trust identified that as an additional safety precaution the lights would need to remain on to allow the security cameras to monitor the multi-storey car park at all times.
"This is in the interests of public safety and to ensure the building remains as secure as the rest of the site."
The building was shut permanently after a survey revealed its 1970s concrete structure had become dangerously weak.
It has up to 750 patient and visitor parking spaces which are used by as many as 2,000 people per day.
A 45-year-old hospital worker, who did not want to be named, said the money would be better used on paying for items for patients.
He said: "All the lights at the defunct car park at Queen's hospital are being left on overnight.
"It's like some form of pointless urban lighthouse. Anybody using the hospital is going to see it.
"In this day and age with us all trying to be green, what a waste of energy and public money that could be spent on pillows for patients on the hospital wards."
Terry Gallagher, 58, of Harwood Close, Arnold, regularly visits the hospital's Clinical Nutrition Unit.
He said: "They are on 24 hours a day. It's an absolute disgrace. The hospital is short of money and should be making savings.
"The car park is secured by fencing it should be secure, and there should be signs outside saying that if anybody goes inside at their own risk."
6 Comments
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by Roly, Pinxton
Thursday, December 25 2008, 9:03AM
“Roly would like to appologise for the poor spelling: Seems my smell checker has failed!”
by Roly, Pinxton
Thursday, December 25 2008, 9:01AM
“I live in a 300 year old cottage built by uneducated untraned local miners as temporary housing and a when its sound after 300 years with no cracks: No the jolly NHS paid how much for a concrete car park that may collapse sfter 30 years! Me thinks maybe the builders should be asked "WHY" or is it OK as we will fit the bill as tax payers?”
by gary, Attenborough
Wednesday, December 24 2008, 8:23PM
“David a good point, they could not stop the crime when it was full of cars,
All they have to do is seal the entrances and switch the lights off.
What health and safety issues do they have if nobody uses the car park.
They perhaps do not know where the light switch is.”
by Simon, Nottingham
Wednesday, December 24 2008, 3:19PM
“If the car park is a dangerous structure it should be demolished and an immediate start made on a replacement. The inconvenience caused by the sudden closure of the hospital car park for patients and visitors as well as staff surely means that the QMC management should regard this as a priority matter. Also, with the construction industry facing collapse this is a good time to get the work done at a good price and provide jobs.”
by Graham J, Notts
Wednesday, December 24 2008, 1:09PM
“It's ok though, the £60 is quickly made up by excessive parking charges to NHS staff.”