Hospital parking NF NF

[ketchenany]

I have my mother-in-law in a hospital in very serious condition.

Thursday morning we were called at 5 am to come in, I drive down saw a parking spot beside a meter and punched in the max amount 12. Stuck it on my dash and rushed in. I came out 6 hours to find a parking 'invoice' for an additional $49. I spoke to someone and at that meter they charge 12 an hour!

When you are called in you get there as fast as possible and don't think about such things. I did not see any signs for 12 an hour only the max $12.

I went back yesterday and and has I was paying another $15 I was told that for $17 I could get a day pass! WHERE are the large signs to advise people.

 

A CBC report I will read later says that parking fees are another patien tax we have to pay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

WE go to the hospital to see loved ones, It's not an entertainment venue.

I for one do not want free parking just reasonable rates. A lot of people make minimum wage and parking is way over that at this location (Humber River at the 400 and Finch). People that go gamble away their savings/paycheck at our casinos get FREE parking!

I cannot even contest this ticket as it's called and invoice! MY MP will hear me soon.

 

A

[Canuck2fan]

I totally agree parking charges for hospitals are out of control... When public funding PAID for and built hospitals the purchases included in most cases land for parking. I understand the need to keep those spaces available for patients, and their families and to do probably means some sort of charge to keep other cars out. That being said anything over 2 bucks in a rural town like where I live is just the hospital holding sick people hostage in my opinion. Everyone agrees visitors are beneficial and in some cases necessary so why slap huge punative parking fees on them?

 

Also as a person who used to work for a company that catered our hospital's executive almost weekly board meetings and other staff planning lunches there is a TON of wasteful spending just at that level that could be put towards to lowering parking fees LOL. Another easy way to save some huge money would be to stop sending out flyers 3 or 4 times a year begging for money, that 99.9% of which just wind up in the garbage unread.

[Photoz]

Yeah h h h h . . . . . this is a real sore spot for me too . . . . I have to go to the hospital for treatment several times a year . . . . . I get there a half hour early, WAIT TO SEE THE DOCTOR FOR UP TO AN HOUR, then buy my van back at the parking garage for $24.00! There is a medical building next door (1333 Sheppard East) . . . . . they are just as bad. When I can, I take the TTC over & back . . . . . $2.00 each way is a lot better than $15.00 to $24.00 maximum parking! But if you are sick or are visiting as sick relative, you may not be able to go this route! When I was in last summer, I added up for 1 day, 5 visitors @ $15.00 or more . . . . these theives get no less than $75.00 . . . for a few hours parking! I think I should get a cut of that, eh? And yes, CBC Marketplace had a GR R R R E A T half hour show . . . . well worth going over to the CBC's site and have a boo!

[DRIFTER_016]

AHHH, the joys of living in the big smoke!!!

Even when I lived near Orangeville there was fee parking @ the hospital.

Here in Yellowknife the parking@ the hospital is free.

So if you want free parking, a long ice fishing season, clean air and an average of 190 days of snow on the ground move to Yellowknife!!!!!!

[kickingfrog]

It is more expensive for me to park at the Barrie hospital (long walk, outside) then it is to park underground at the ACC during a Leaf's game.

[Tayzak15]

Recently in one of my classes (a tax class) part of my real estate program we had a speaker from the city of Toronto giving us a presentation of some of the ways they are planning to propose new taxes to raise funds for the expansion of the Spadina lines. She said they are still trying to choose which ones to propose but all of them seemed pretty bad. I'm glad I'm moving away in the summer, but I think she said they are going to propose these sometime in 2014. One I will mention is charging people with vehicles a flat fee of 8$ just to enter the downtown core plus whatever you spend on parking,shopping ect. She was also talking about raising parking fees everywhere.

[Old Ironmaker]

I think many have been hammered by parking tickets when dealing with an emergency at or near the hospital. Recently received a $75.00 ticket at Hamilton General when I parked illegally at a meter to take care of Dad when Mom was rushed to emergency at 3 AM. I had the administration there make a copy of the admitting documentation as well as the ambulance report with the date and time on it, went to the by law office next to Hamilton Place and pled my case to the clerk there. If you have a reason as well documentation to prove your case most all parking authorities can be reasonable if you are. They quashed the ticket and told me if it happens again, and they know it, I will have to pay.

 

Take the ticket in with some documentation and explain, don't have anything to lose.

 

As far as gouging for revenue, what else is new.

 

Tayzak, charging to enter the city core is nothing new around the world. It was $100.00 cdn in 1995 to enter downtown Tokyo. A very good incentive to take public transit or a cab, their purpose was not to generate revenue but to encourage public transit. Regularly done in Europe as well, we don't see it as tourists but the locals will sure tell you about it.

Edited March 30, 2013 by Old Ironmaker

[Tayzak15]

I think many have been hammered by parking tickets when dealing with an emergency at or near the hospital. Recently received a $75.00 ticket at Hamilton General when I parked illegally at a meter to take care of Dad when Mom was rushed to emergency at 3 AM. I had the administration there make a copy of the admitting documentation as well as the ambulance report with the date and time on it, went to the by law office next to Hamilton Place and pled my case to the clerk there. If you have a reason as well documentation to prove your case most all parking authorities can be reasonable if you are. They quashed the ticket and told me if it happens again, and they know it, I will have to pay.

 

Take the ticket in with some documentation and explain, don't have anything to lose.

 

As far as gouging for revenue, what else is new.

 

Tayzak, charging to enter the city core is nothing new around the world. It was $100.00 cdn in 1995 to enter downtown Tokyo. A very good incentive to take public transit or a cab, their purpose was not to generate revenue but to encourage public transit. Regularly done in Europe as well, we don't see it as tourists but the locals will sure tell you about it.

Its the fact that it may happen. I'm not saying that's the worst one neither just gave an example of idea that they had been thinking of. Another one was charging everybody a certain price for every kilometer driven on a 400 series highway.

[irishfield]

Well.. at least it was there when you came out... not towed with a HDCP permit clearly on the dash and hitting almost $400 when we found Leah's truck towed from University to Eglington/Victoria Park impound!

 

$20 a day Al... every friggin day of the week long treatments, since 2010. I don't wonder where my money went.. I know.

[Old Ironmaker]

If there is a way for our lawmakers to generate a buck for the public coffers they will do it. Raising taxes and generating user fees is a lot easier then coming up with a novel solution, something like freezing their wages and pensions, eliminating their expense accounts for food, gifts, sundries, travel to fundraisers, taxable deductions that we don't get and entertainment. I think if I had the time and energy I could fill this page of things our elected and non-elected officials get that we don't. Oh don't get me going sir.

[irishfield]

Hey OIron... the thing that really makes my blood boil.. Ontario Power Generation owns the parking garage behind Mount Sinai.. not the hospital !

Edited March 30, 2013 by irishfield

[Old Ironmaker]

Irish,

 

I know a few years back there was parking exemptions for someone such as yourself that needed to be there for longer term visits. Depends on the hospital and jurisdiction I imagine, TO not being one of them.

 

I was driving a dear fiends wife to TO from here to Mt. Sinai for bi-monthly post surgical check ups. 3 hours one way on a good day. Then she was told that The Canadian Cancer Society will provide transportation which she now takes advantage of. I wonder if they could help you out? I don't know your situation as I'm only a net attendant but I hope all is well.

[rob v]

Somebody has to pay the astronomical salaries some of these hospital administrators get paid (i almost said earn). And then when they screw up and get the boot another pot of money !! All aboard the gravy train !!

[lew]

A few years back my mom was in Toronto General for quite awhile. I was living in Toronto at the time and used to go visit her everyday but it was costing me a fortune to park my truck. I hadn't used the TTC in decades but decided it was time to start again. It wasn't really as bad as I thought it would be and it sure saved alot of money over the time she was there and I never felt like I was being robbed every time I had to pay.

[irishfield]

Exactly what we did for Jen's pelvic surgery Lew... parked the truck for the month and rode the Red Rocket every day or walked home (Jen's apartment) if she had visitors that were staying late.. University.. to Lansdowne.. my feet are still sore!

[muddler]

I think it's criminal that anybody has to pay to park at any hospital. Let's face it, I really don't ever want to go there, either as a patient or as a visitor. Visiting a patient helps a lot. When my mother was in the hospital, I would visit every day(sometimes 2 or 3 times a day). She loved visitors and it made her last days a lot less difficult. We have free hospital parking here and that is the way it should be.

Taking advantage of people like that when they are in need is just immoral.

 

Just my 2 cents(opps it's a nickel now).

muddler

[lew]

parked the truck for the month and rode the Red Rocket every day or walked home

 

That old Rocket is pretty slow Wayne, but not really much more than trying to drive a car thru all that crazy traffic everyday.

[cisco]

Hospitals are non-profit charitable organizations and they call the land they sit on 'private property'. So simply don't pay the fine. They aren't connected to gov't to track down your licence plate and hold tickets ransome for you renewing your licence plate. On the invoice this is evident since there isn't even an explanation how to challenge a charge.

 

They have the parking arms on most lots to keep you in the lot until you pay thus bringing the arm up for you to 'escape'. So only park where you have a meter to attend/ignore. Unless you're parking in a clearly marked bad spot such as a fire emergency zone or handicapped parking spot at an entrance kinda thing, gov't won't be the ticket issuer it'll be private property renta cops. Be polite, leave and tear the thing up.

[blue pickeral]

Hospitals are non-profit charitable organizations and they call the land they sit on 'private property'. So simply don't pay the fine..... Unless you're parking in a clearly marked bad spot such as a fire emergency zone or handicapped parking spot at an entrance kinda thing, gov't won't be the ticket issuer it'll be private property renta cops. Be polite, leave and tear the thing up.

I saw the show on CBC and was wondering about this strategy as well. At many hospitals, there is a private company -Impark?? or something, that is contracted to do the parking. If you pay for parking, hospital gets money. If the company gives you a ticket (and the have incentive plans for their employees to hand them out) the money goe to the private contractor! Not a penny (nickel) goes to the hospital.

 

If there is no deal between the government (MTO?) that they can withhold your license plate re-newal (as in unpaid 407 tolls) why pay the tickets? I suppose the company could black list your vehicle if you are a frequent hospital visitor and get you towed, but it would almost pay to have someone site with your vehicle at minimum wage warning the attendents to keep their hands off.

 

Meanwhile, lobby your locally elected municipal councillors to pass a by-law which would ban the charging of public parking at public institutions. One mayor was interviewed in the story and the town had banned the use of parking meters in the hospital lot.

[ketchenany]

If you don't pay or get it cancelled they will send it to a collection agency and credit bureau. I will contest this as much as I can after the funeral.

 

BTW this lot and all parking issues are controlled by private firm and they can do what they want. I guess the hospital gets a portion of the take.

 

Happy Easter to all.

[Big Cliff]

One of the buildings here in Lindsay that has Dr.s offices, a drug store, and Lab in it has paid parking, $3.00 flat rate so even if you run in to pick up a perscription it is $3.00. Everything in front of the building is marked as a fire route, $45.00 fine. Now ifn fairness, if you do get a perscription filled at the drug store, they will give you the $3.00. The hospital here is $4.00/half hour metered or $8.00 a day long term and for that you have to park about 100 meters from the entrance.

Edited March 31, 2013 by Big Cliff

[moxie]

Exactly. Refuse to pay. Make enough of a stink about it they either call a cop or just let you go. Even with all the good the health system does they are another money wasting entity with a sense of entitlement as demonstrated time and time again by the party with a leader no one voted for. Bend over, its only going to get worse.

 

 

 

Wishing all a happy Easter.

[Woodsman]

Exactly. Refuse to pay. Make enough of a stink about it they either call a cop or just let you go.

Great advice.

Of course when the cops show up they will insist you are charged under the Tresspass to Property Act.

[mcdougy]

op. sorry to hear of your loss. Hospitals are a shhty place to be and visit. After the visit, the last thing you get to do is feed a $20 into a stupid machine. One thing that is availlable at a lot of hospitals, that they dont tell you about, is a monthly parking pass. In London a visitor month pass was in the neighborhood of $85. It's still too much, a pain to acquire, but is considerably cheaper than paying daily. We even got a system going where we would pass it around the family at"sitting changes", or meet them in the lot when we left and give it to them once you got out of the gate. Silly measures to take, but were talking 100s of dollars a week if visiting daily.

[Old Ironmaker]

Exactly. Refuse to pay. Make enough of a stink about it they either call a cop or just let you go. Even with all the good the health system does they are another money wasting entity with a sense of entitlement as demonstrated time and time again by the party with a leader no one voted for. Bend over, its only going to get worse.

 

 

 

Wishing all a happy Easter.

 

Not that simple, all Hamilton hospitals have an agreement with the city concerning parking. Same ramifications for not paying as if you parked illegally in front of City Hall. If on a private lot like Shoppers Drug Mart the police won't ticket on private property but the store can have your car towed for many many reasons. Same as parking at a disabled spot on private property, police won't ticket but your vehicle might not be there when you get back.