Car park 'gridlock' at Queen Alexandra Hospital after fault with multi-storey ticket machines

PATIENTS and visitors at the city’s hospital said its car park was in ‘gridlock' today after a glitch with a pair of parking machines.
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The mechanical fault at Queen Alexandra Hospital’s multi-storey car park left two payment stations out of action, causing queues of outgoing visitors to back up to the site's zebra crossing.

Eyewitnesses said cars were unable to get in and out of the car park, eyewitnesses said.

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Neill Ward, 66, said he had to wait to pay for his parking ticket at 11am after travelling to QA for an appointment.

Patients and visitors to Queen Alexandra Hospital in Cosham queue for the multi-storey car parking pay machinePatients and visitors to Queen Alexandra Hospital in Cosham queue for the multi-storey car parking pay machine
Patients and visitors to Queen Alexandra Hospital in Cosham queue for the multi-storey car parking pay machine

‘It was absolute chaos because there was only one pay parking machine for the multi-storey,' said Mr Ward, from Lee-on-the-Solent.

‘There were queues back to the zebra crossing and I had to wait 20 minutes to pay.

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‘The people waiting in the queue are unwell.

‘It also meant that the car park was gridlocked because cars couldn’t leave as people are waiting to pay and so there are queues of cars waiting to get in and get out. It was a nightmare.’

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Pictures from outside the hospital’s Southampton Road entrance, taken by visitor John Ilsley, show a lot of traffic waiting to get on to the hospital site at about 11am.

Others he took at 2pm captured scenes of stacked congestion northbound along London Road and up Southwick Hill Road, where a queue of eight cars straggled out of the hospital’s east entrance.

Mr Ilsley, 48 from Southsea, said: ‘My mum is currently on a ward in QA hospital.

‘I was permitted a visit outside visiting hours at about 11am so I rode up on my motorbike and was surprised to discover how busy it was.

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‘Because I was on my bike I was able to filter, but multi-storey car park users were trying to get into the hospital from both sides.

‘There was absolutely no parking and I ended parking literally against a bike shelter.

‘That was all I could do without parking on the pavement and getting in everybody’s way.'

He added: ‘Mum has been in and out hospital a few years so I've seen it busy now and again, but this was terrible.’

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Contractor Engie manages the multi-storey car park as part of a £1.3bn partnership with Queen Alexandra Hospital.

A spokeswoman for the hospital said: ‘Two pay machines in the multi-storey car park were unavailable for a short period of time due to a mechanical fault.’

Standard visiting hours at the hospital are from 3pm to 4.30pm and 6.30pm to 8pm.

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