A MAN has been left enraged after being slapped with two parking charges for dropping his dying uncle off at hospital.
Robert Thomas, 61, rushed his uncle Peter Britton to Salisbury Hospital’s A&E on Friday, April 19.
Upon arrival, the part-time bus driver left his car on the emergency ramp from 6.49am until he was asked to move it to a carpark at 9.06am once his uncle was admitted.
Mr Britton, who lived in New Zealand, had collapsed while visiting his children earlier that day and his legs were paralysed.
A 111 call handler recommended family members drove him to hospital as the wait for an ambulance was extensive.
The 89-year-old was subsequently diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and died nine days later, on Sunday morning, April 28.
An "incensed" Mr Thomas came home from his uncle’s cremation on Friday, May 3, to find two £90 parking charges from the hospital’s contractor APCOA on his doorstep.
One marked his move around 9am and the other charged him for returning at 5pm to drop off clothes for his uncle.
“The thing is, if you have got a dying man in the car you don’t mess around reading the notices in the carpark. I think it’s utterly disgusting," he said.
To make matters worse, Mr Thomas had already spent £4.50 to park in the afternoon before leaving.
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Labelling the charge a consequence of a “high tech world with low tech minds”, Mr Thomas said he would be happy to take the PCN appeal to court while slamming the "confusing" process.
“They are making money out of the dead. It is just ringing money from people’s deceased," he added.
“In my book they are profiting from people who have not got the time to read the terms and conditions.”
The hospital offers a 'butterfly pass' which gives free parking to visitors of end-of-life care patient, a detail buried in an NHS website document.
As per this policy, if a PCN is issued while a visitor is attending for end-of-life reasons then that PCN will be cancelled on appeal.
According to the hospital, cameras picked up Mr Thomas arriving at 6.49am and leaving at 9.06am without paying. He then arrived in car park eight at 11.14am and left at 2.50pm after paying £4.50.
Mr Thomas returned to the hospital at 4.40pm and left at 5.44pm without paying.
A spokesperson for Salisbury District Hospital said: “We recognise that car parking onsite at Salisbury District Hospital is challenging and we are working where possible to increase the availability of visitor spaces and where appropriate encourage alternative means of travel.
"There are numerous ways patients and visitors can pay either on site at a machine, online or by app and APCOA have a late pay option for the day after if someone forgets to pay at the time.
"There is a 30-minute period of free parking for drop off and collection and parking is also free between 10pm and 6am. There are a number of groups of people that do not need to pay and these can be found on the hospital website.
The spokesperson confirmed that the income from car parking fees, after costs, is used to support the delivery of hospital services.
Mr Thomas offered high praise to the "absolutely brilliant" staff in the hospital.
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