N.S. nurses union calls for on-site staff parking at Halifax hospitals

Some N.S. health-care workers argue free parking at hospitals will force them to park elsewhere.

Day one of Nova Scotia’s free hospital parking initiative shows there are still some kinks to be worked out.

“I went to put my ticket in and it said I owed $7.50 and I just pressed the help button and explained to the parking attendant that I was a patient of the ortho clinic today and I’m here and he just fixed it and open the gate right away,” says Karen McEachern.

With parking already at a premium, McEachern considers herself lucky to get a spot. Capacity at the Victoria General Hospital lot is 719 spaces but construction has temporarily reduced that by 50.

The Summer Street lot can hold 512 vehicles. Staff are not permitted to use it during peak hours.

“The focus here is on patients or those who are visiting patients are able to have a stress-free visit,” says Nova Scotia Health senior communications advisor Brendan Elliott.

Elliott says there are other options for the 12,000 staff, physicians and volunteers who work at the Victoria General and Halifax Infirmary sites.

“We have some offsite parking that used to be charged and that was free for them on the Garrison Grounds and also on College Street,” he says.

Nova Scotia currently has 97 parking lots across the province, 39 of which charge for parking. Janet Hazelton, president of the Nova Scotia Nurses Union, says most of the parking shortfall is in Halifax.

“Most of our facilities across the province do have parking on site,” she says.

She would like to see some on-site spots set aside for staff in Halifax.

“Especially those that are on call. because our nurses on call for the operating room, they can be called in at any time,” she says.

“We’re listening to what our staff have to say, we’re trying to come up with solutions. We want to work with staff to figure out what could be done. The reality is that there’s only a certain number of parking spaces. That was made even more difficult when we had to take down the Robie Street parkade for the big expansion that’s happening,” Elliott says.

Staff are permitted to park for free on-site outside of peak hours and on weekends and holidays.

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