Another Armadale Kelmscott District Memorial Hospital patient has recently complained about parking issues for priority patients, saying it has been an ongoing issue for far too long.
David Jackson has visited the hospital regularly for 12 years to receive dialysis treatment and said the issue has existed for much of that time.
“I don’t bother parking in the dialysis bays sometimes, I just park in the disabled bays instead because I have an ACROD permit,” he said.
“I’ve spoken to Member for Armadale Tony Buti several times about it and he’s got onto the hospital but that’s where it bogs down.”
Last week Examiner Newspapers published a story about hospital patient Kristine White who had enough of special reserved parking spaces near the hospital’s entrance being taken by hospital users without proper permits.
She had said she had taken it upon herself to let offenders know they were doing the wrong thing and Mr Jackson said he had begun doing the same.
“I saw a fella in a car smoking,” he said.
“I went up and said, ‘you’re not a dialysis patient’.
“He backed out and moved but by the time I’d walked to the car another car had driven in.
“Then I had to speak to the new person.”
Mr Jackson said he wanted people to know dialysis patients were often not in the right condition to walk long distances to and from cars after treatment.
“One day I had to park on the other side of the hospital and walk right across to the other side of the car park, I was exhausted by the time I got there,” he said.
Mr Jackson said even though parking fines had increased to $300 to him nothing had changed.
“It doesn’t seem to have had much effect,” he said.
A spokesperson said the hospital had tried to provide safe and accessible parking for all visitors but said patients with permits were not guaranteed a parking bay.
Armadale Kelmscott District Memorial Hospital is the only public hospital in Western Australia to provide reserved free parking bays for dialysis patients and the hospital asked visitors to be mindful of parking restrictions in certain areas.
