Portsmouth cancer patient threatened with legal action over parking fine after QA Hospital appointment overran

Claire Pearce, 51, has been locked in a year-long battle with the hospital’s parking management company, Parkshield Collections Ltd, who slapped her with a £100 fine for an insignificant parking infringement then persistently threatened to take her to court if she didn’t pay up.

She is one of a number of QA Hospital’s chronically ill patients who have accused the parking operator of immoral practices by targeting them during repeat treatment visits for cancer or attending the hospital’s emergency A&E department.

In April 2019 Claire was rushed to a London hospital where neurosurgeons removed a painful cancerous head and neck tumour.

Her 70-year-old mother, Jennie Annable, explained it was a particularly difficult procedure. Her daughter lost her hearing, and suffered a facial stroke-like drop which affected her speech.

‘Surgeons were confident they’d removed the tumour,’ she said, ‘but last January the cancer unexpectedly returned on the other side of her face.

‘In mid July she was into QA for her monthly radiotherapy appointment. It overran by about 10 or 15 minutes, but when we got back to the car she’d been hit with the disgraceful fine. It seems her hospital exemption ticket had fallen off the dashboard while she was distracted, probably when she closed the car door.’

Claire initially appealed the unfair charge online but it was never acknowledged. Since she heard nothing further she assumed the matter had been sorted.

But out of the blue seven months later, another demand turned up while she was recovering from the invasive surgery. She was too ill to respond, but when she felt well enough Claire forwarded a second online appeal followed up with an explanatory registered letter only to be abruptly told it was out of time.

Because of her acute medical condition, her ability to cope with the ongoing demands to terrify her into paying up was beginning to take its toll.

Matters came to a head in May. An enforcement notice turned up from a Parkshield Collections ‘legal processing clerk’ bristling with threats of court action, additional charges, bailiffs, and trashed consumer credit ratings. It said no further notice would be given.

Fuming mum Jennie revealed the level of drugs her daughter was on to control her pain would flatten most people. There had been no compassion or understanding what she had been going through.

She added: ‘It’s an absolute disgrace the hospital allows vulnerable people who are at a hospital for treatment of long-term conditions to be unfairly exploited in this manner.

‘At the end of the day the hospital has to take responsibility for releasing these dogs on people who are unable to defend themselves. It’s not just the patients. I’m a 70-year-old pensioner who is the only one that can run my daughter to the hospital and also stressed by the immorality of these people preying on patients undergoing dreadful unpleasant treatments.’

Streetwise regularly receives complaints from outraged patients highlighting their experience of being hit by heavy handed Parkshield wardens treating them as cash cows.

SEE ALSO: Portsmouth woman survives same cancer that killed her grandmother but says there is more research to do

We previously featured the story of reader Gillian Patterson who was typically hit with a £100 penalty for a minor part of her parking ticket being obscured by a black border around her car’s windscreen.

We also took up the case of outpatient double glazing fitter Darren Hubbert. He drove to the A&E department when a hernia incision refused to heal leaving him in agonising pain. The nearest parking machine was out of order, but a parking attendant – who just happened to be in the vicinity – confirmed he wouldn’t be penalised.

He left the hospital after treatment believing the matter had been dealt with appropriately.

However two months later a £100 demand unexpectedly turned up accompanied by a photograph of a parking ticket attached to his van windscreen which had subsequently been removed before he drove home.

Reader Tony Chipps was another victim outrageously slapped with a £150 charge for overstaying after he went to pick up his terminally ill mother in law in her car.

Hospital staff mistakenly directed him to the wrong cancer patient discharge point. By the time he found her and wheeled her back to her car in a pushchair he’d unavoidably overran his time by a matter of ten minutes.

On informing Parkshield of her death, the firm transferred the fine to him as the driver of the car without a single word of condolence for his loss.

Another reader, who didn’t wish to be named, had been panic driven to the hospital in the middle of the night by his wife after suffering a stroke. She was subsequently hit with a £100 charge for parking in a bay with one wheel just touching the white marking line.

He commented: ‘There should be a special place in hell reserved for these people, profiting from the fear and misery of patients suffering from life-threatening conditions.’

The abuse of car parking controls at NHS hospitals is not unique to QA Hospital as a brief search of the internet will testify. Its origins go back to 2012 when clamping and towing away on private land was outlawed, depriving rogue parking companies of their major source of income.

In order to recoup their losses, they resorted to introducing spurious petty conditions in their contracts, the most prolific of which included the location and visibility of parking tickets and the precise positioning of vehicles in marked bays.

Although there was an appeals process it was not genuinely independent from the industry, and amounted to little more than marking their own homework.

Streetwise contacted Parkshield’s elusive management at their registered office in Knutsford Cheshire for comment. We found them publicity shy and averse to revealing their identity for what they claimed were security reasons. Our request to explain the questionable morality of the firm’s business model went unanswered and was dismissed as simply noted.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson made it clear the buck stopped with the Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust. He told us it was down to them to confront issues relating to the morality of firms fleecing drivers with disgraceful unfair parking charges.

He said: ‘NHS organisations are locally responsible for the provision and charging for their parking and this includes the methods used to charge. From January next year free parking will become mandatory for disabled people, frequent outpatient attenders, parents of children staying overnight and staff working night shifts.’

Streetwise contacted the hospital trust and asked them to explain precisely who Parkshield was answerable to for site parking management, as it might appear they were complicit in approving their scandalous zero-tolerance charging practices.

But the hospital confirmed it was not in the business of holding parking wardens to account for their rip-off activities.

A spokesperson said: ‘We prioritise parking on the Queen Alexandra Hospital site for patients, visitors and staff who need to park on site due to a reasons such as mobility or working patterns. Parking is limited and therefore it is necessary to enforce the parking policy. There is an appeals process which can be used by patients and visitors. In Mrs Pearce’s case, we can confirm that we will make sure no further action will be taken and a letter will be sent to her to confirm this.’

However, Streetwise can reveal hospital patients, visitors, and staff are about to receive greater government protection against bogus parking fines dished out by rogue private parking operators. New measures to clamp down on their reprehensible activities will come into force when the Parking (Code of Practice) Act 2019 becomes law later this year.

Private parking firms will be compelled to follow a new code of practice and drivers will be able to challenge unfair fines via a new completely independent appeals service.

Claire Pearce was currently undergoing inpatient treatment, but Mum Jennie told us Claire was heartily relieved that thanks to Streetwise her battle had finally been won.

She added: ‘My take on the whole thing is that the hospital is between a rock and a hard place because their hands are pretty much tied by the main contractor. The parking firm just shouldn’t be allowed to prey on vulnerable patients.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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