The amount of free parking at the Ridge Meadows Hospital has been reduced, to the chagrin of people using the lab.
The issue of hospital parking has long been an irritant in Maple Ridge, going back at least six years, when members residents began to lobby for free parking. Politicians have tried to win support by promising that pay parking will be removed.
So when the three free parking sports for lab patients were reduced to two, Len Goddard wanted to highlight what appears to be another cash grab on the backs of people accessing health services.
He goes to the hospital regularly for blood work. But with the lack of parking, and the demand for pay parking, he may soon be driving to Mission Hospital, where parking is free.
“There were always three one-hour parking spots for the lab, then all of the sudden there is two,” said Goddard. “To me, it’s a ripoff.
“The whole darn hospital parking thing is a ripoff.”
Lab patients might only be at the hospital five minutes, or they might be an hour, he said, and it was a valued courtesy to have easily accessible parking.
The alternative is to pay $3.50 for the first hour and $3 per additional hour of parking.
On Thursday morning, numerous cars were patrolling the lot looking for a place to park.
Both of the lab parking spots were full, and Debbie Van de Waal, who had dropped off an elderly lady for a lab work, was forced to cruise the lot in her SUV, rather than join the patient inside.
“The parking is very poor. There’s not enough parking,” she said.
She eventually parked in a no-parking zone, where the pavement was painted yellow.
“There’s no parking spots, so I’ve been driving around, driving around. Then finally I thought, ‘I’ll park here, and they’ll come and yell at me, and I’ll move.’”
She said all hospitals should offer free parking.
“People are getting less and less visitors in the hospital, because it is too expensive.
The Provincial Health Services Authority has taken over the administration of hospital parking from Fraser Health. The Maple Ridge lot is policed by Imperial Parking (Impark).
According to Vincent Chou, with the provincial authority, a stall availability survey found the lab stalls were under-utilized. At the same time, there was demand for regular parking stalls, so it was converted effective December 2017.
It’s only one free spot, but Goddard didn’t want to just let it go without complaint.
“What’s to stop them from taking the last two out?”