Car Sharing at The Great Western
Hospital
Background
• The Great Western Hospital is a District General
Hospital performing 35,000 planned operations
and 247,214 outpatients appointment plus
emergency treatment in the year 09/10.
• There are 3000+ Great Western Hospital staff
who are based on the site.
• There are then another two Trusts who have
patients and staff, plus contract staff, a crèche
and staff accommodation block on the site.
Background
• There are approx 1800 car parking spaces on the
site.
• These are split roughly 600 visitor and 1200 staff
parking.
• There are approx 3500 staff parking permits in
circulation at the moment.
• There are 14 Thamesdown buses coming onto
site an hour at peak times, plus long distance
services.
• There is a cycle path/pavement connecting the
hospital with local residential areas and the Town
Centre.
Current Situation on a Bad Day
• During non holiday periods the staff car parks
are full by 9.30am
• Staff arriving after this time start to park in
visitor spaces there by reducing visitor car
parking.
• By about 10.30 visitors attending the site for
out patient appointments struggle to park –
increases anxiety and causes disruption to
clinics.
• Staff arriving for the late shift about 13.30
struggle to park, so are late to the ward
causing delays in staff hand over and stress.
• This delay means that spaces are not freed up
for other staff arriving for work.
• 14.30 visiting starts and at its worst the site is
gridlocked and traffic is queuing onto the main
roads. This has the potential to delay blue
light traffic reaching the site.
Impacts
• Staff do not like working the late shift as they will
struggle to park.
• Staff witnessed having breakfast in their cars once they
have secured their parking space.
• Work patterns are planned around being able to park.
• Increased levels of stress for staff and patients.
• Not proven, but likely to be higher spend on Patient
Transport as patients off set inconvenience with not
needed to park.
• Problem exacerbated by people arriving early to find
somewhere to park.
New Travel Choices Policy
• 28th November, after two lengthy consultations
with staff a new policy will be introduced.
• As part of the policy the Trust is continuing to
offer discounts through the Bike to Work
Schemes and with local bus providers.
• Charging for staff car parking will be changed
from a monthly fee to a pay as you use charge.
For almost all members of staff this will increase
the cost of parking.
Restricted Days
• Staff will only be entitled to bring their car
onto the site for a limited number of days in a
fixed fortnightly period.
Number of days worked per
week
Number of days parking per
fortnight
1
1
2
3
3
4
4
5
5
6
Car sharing
• Trust invested in Liftshare software to
facilitate staff seeking car share arrangements.
• For staff car sharing not only means that you
are able to access the car parks every day, but
also reduces the cost of parking and
commuting.
• For the Trust there is a reduction in scope 3
emissions, and the demand to increase car
parking on the site, which is not sustainable.
Marketing
• Logo designed and the database was linked from the main
page of the Trust intranet.
• Posters were put around the site informing people of the
options available to them for travel to work.
• Seminars were held to assist people to register and
Liftshare produced easy to follow instructions.
• An incentive was offered to early budi teams - free car
parking for six weeks when the new policy is launched.
• The policy has an appeals process, and appellants needed
to show that they had tried to find a car share partner.
Current statistics
• 1320 number of people registered on the
software
• 123 number of people in budi teams
• Number of match requests sent 677
• Number of match requests confirmed as Yes 234
• Number of match requests confirmed as No 181
• Also aware that there are several car sharers who
have found arrangements outside of using the
software.
Going forward
• After three weeks every new employee will be
expected to participate in the restricted days
scheme. So membership will be constantly up
dated.
• Those who have been granted a permit by the
appeals board will have their situation
reviewed routinely.