Paying for parking frustrates patients Author: By COURTNEY TRENWITH Date: 10/01/2006 Publication: Illawarra Mercury
WOLLONGONG City Council is investigating a controversial new user-pays system at the Dapto Medical Centre car park.
A boom gate was installed at the Marshall St entrance to the car park last month, forcing drivers to pay $2 each time they exit.
The gate was meant to stop non-patients parking there all day.
But yesterday Wollongong City Council said the centre's owner, Primary Health Care, had not sought consent for the boom gate.
It will investigate the matter further. Primary Health Care declined to comment yesterday.
The Illawarra Mercury has received numerous complaints from patients, mostly in relation to the lack of free access for the disabled and elderly.
Paramedics also complained after twice being trapped in the car park when picking up patients to transport to hospital. The centre has made arrangements to give paramedics $2 to exit.
Dapto couple Margaret and Ray Potter are angry the centre is charging disabled and elderly patients who need to park in the car park for ease of access to the centre. Parking in all of the streets surrounding the centre is difficult to get and limited to either 30 minutes or one hour.
Mr Potter needs to see his doctor every few months to receive prescriptions to treat multiple sclerosis.
He also makes visits to the dentist and for X-rays.
He can not walk far due to his condition and must be dropped off as close to the centre's entrance as possible.
"Even if I drop him off at Marshall St, the boom gate says no pedestrian access, so I've got to either break the law and drop him at the traffic lights (on the Princes Hwy) or be lucky and get a park on Bong Bong Rd," Mrs Potter said.
Federal Member for Throsby Jennie George has written to Primary Health Care asking whether it would consider allowing disabled and elderly patients free access to the car park or a token for all patients to use the car park for free.
The Illawarra Disability Trust and Paraplegic and Quadriplegic Association of NSW South Coast branch has also supported the need for free parking for the disabled.