No longer allowed to park at the hospital • “A colleague received three parking fines on an on-call shift”
Doctors on call at Norrland University Hospital are no longer allowed to park at the hospital when they go out to save lives. They are instead referred to a parking lot ten minutes away – something that endangers the patients’ lives as every minute counts, says chief physician Alexander Henze.
– A stroke patient who has had a blood clot loses approximately two million cells per minute, imagine how many cells are lost in ten minutes, he tells TV4 Nyheterna.
Doctors on duty at Norrland University Hospital in Umeå have previously been allowed to park for free in so-called emergency spaces directly adjacent to the hospital’s main entrance when they were called in for emergency situations. But since a few weeks ago, the doctors are no longer allowed to park there without risking a traffic ticket. They are instead directed to a car park further away, which The Västerbottens-Kuriren was the first to report on.
For chief physician Alexander Henze, the new parking rules mean an extended emergency response time of at least ten minutes. Minutes that are crucial for the patient’s life in emergency situations, he believes.
– Every minute counts in such situations when we have to be the fastest from arrival to when we start the treatment, Alexander Henze tells TV4 Nyheterna.
– A stroke patient who has had a blood clot loses approximately two million cells per minute, so imagine how many cells are lost in ten minutes, he continues.
Ignore the rules
In order to save lives, Henze ignores the new parking rules, and thus has received tens of parking fines so far, which he must collect in a pile and hand over to his boss. The staff must then certify within five days that they parked there due to a life-threatening situation.
– It is not just me who is affected, but many of my colleagues who work on call. A colleague of mine got three parking tickets in just one shift.
Henze has raised the problem with the hospital management but has not received a proper explanation.
– I have no problem paying for my parking, but the management doesn’t think about the staff or the patients.
“Looking at alternative ways”
Hospital management tells TV4 Nyheterna that they are aware of the problems that the new routines entail.
– I fully understand the problem. It’s always sad when the staff experiences a deterioration, of course, says Magnus Hedström, area manager for Norrland University Hospital.
– This is completely new, but we have raised it with our property manager and it is in process, he continues.
The property manager explains that the new procedures have been introduced to ensure that the parking spaces are not used by people who do not have the right to use them.
“These are patrolled around the clock to ensure that there will be places when staff on duty need them. The parking fines that are issued are canceled if the staff were there during duty hours and the manager confirms this,” writes Fredrik Wirenblad to TV4 Nyheterna