NHS nurse shares 'nasty note' left on car at hospital after 13-hour shift
An angry nurse said her "blood was boiling" after finding a "nasty note" left on her windscreen for parking at the hospital following a 13-hour shift.
Jessica Hannah is forced to park on residential streets in Edinburgh while at work due to not being permitted to use the hospital car park and she said that catching a bus would take an extra hour both ways on top of her already long day.
The 22-year-old ended her shift at the hospital in Edinburgh's Little France district on Wednesday to find a hostile memo pinned under her windscreen wiper. Newly-qualified nurse Jessica was upset by the note warning her off parking there again and claimed that she was not blocking any driveways or entrances.
An image shows Jessica holding the note, scrawled on blank white paper, which bluntly reads: "You are blocking my entrance to my parking. If this situation happens again, the car registration number will be reported to the relevant office with photo documentation."
Due to limited parking spaces, those working at Edinburgh's hospitals in the Little France district are only allowed to park in the staff car park on nightshifts, or over the weekend. Since the opening of Edinburgh's Sick Kids Hospital in 2021, NHS staff have struggled to manage parking in the Little France sites.
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James Crosbie, Deputy Chief Executive Officer for NHS Lothian, has previously said that there would be up to 250 new parking spaces made at the hospital complex but despite this promise, Jessica has been left frustrated, adding that a whole new hospital has been constructed, but no new staff car park.
Jessica said: "I was on a normal stretch of road, not blocking any driveways. I came back from my 13-hour shift to find a nasty note on my windscreen. I don't know what house did it. I know I wasn't covering anyone's drive. I have to park ten minutes away from the hospital. I'm not allowed to park my car there even though I'm staff. It's a public street. They should take it up with the hospital.
"You can't park in the staff car park unless you have a permit - which you need to live over 30 miles away to qualify for. They have wardens standing at the entrance to the car park every morning. They turn me away even with my staff badge. If I was to get the bus from the other side of Edinburgh it would add over an hour travel each way to my already 13-hour shift - when am I meant to sleep? It already adds more time to my day. It makes my blood boil."
Jessica added: "They built a whole new hospital but no new staff car park. Now the permit rule is in place, half the car park sits empty. There's plenty of space in the visitor's car park as well. Finding that note at the end of my day has just left me so upset. I'm at a complete loss. Where else can I go? I wish the hospital would just let us park somewhere. Even if it meant I had to pay for a staff permit, I definitely would. It's such a problem - I wish they'd prioritise sorting it."
During the Covid pandemic, doctors and nurses were forced to "give up" and park off-site up to two miles away from the hospital, making them late for work and putting sick patients at risk, it is claimed.
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