Forum Topic

Polyclinic parking probs

When Mattock Lane Health Centre moves to the new Polyclinic at Daniels, does anyone know what parking facilities there'll be for patients?It is difficult, usually impossible, for patients to park at the MLHC, due to the large car park there being full with cars owned by doctors, nurses and other staff's LexusLS and MercedesSLR Coupe wheels taking up all the spaces.Any suggestions please?   :-(

Gerry Tan ● 6719d46 Comments

The real parking problem at MLHC is not the staff, it's the widespread misuse of this private car park by local commuters, shoppers and other non-patients. The staff are well aware of this problem but have always insisted an effective control system to exclude these selfish toe-rags is unaffordable.I expect the new Polyclinic will have a much lower patient parking provision, in accordance with current crackpot 'maximum' parking standards for new development (dictated by national planning policy guidance). Thus many patients will suffer severe additional convenience and even hardship just to make the eco-zealots feel good.

Chris Veasey ● 6719d

Twice a year, I used to drive a disabled(almost) old neighbour for her check-ups at Mattock Lane. Could never park in their extensive parking area behind the clinic - used to have to deposit her there and find a parking spot some distance away, sometimes back to my own home and collect her after the appointment. Most inconvenient! Sadly, she's no longer with us, but there would have been no way for her to get to the Polyclinic without some help. She could have had an ambulance, but preferred not to trouble the ambulance service for just twice a year - typical of the kindly attitude of most older folk.

Gerry Tan ● 6719d

Chris is quite right about the abuse of the Mattock Lane Health Centre car park.  At our recent West Ealing Neighbours meeting we had a presentation/talk about the plans for the Daniels health centre by a lady from the Ealing Primary Care Trust. She said they hope to retain the 45 car park spaces that were planned for the return of the Daniels store and that these may very well be pay and display and more effectively policed to ensure they are properly used.Car parking and access were two of the main concerns that came up at our meeting along with questions of how this will be financed as it's some sort of PFI hybrid.  You can find a fuller note about all this on our website at http://www.westealingneighbours.org.uk/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=364

David Highton ● 6719d

What, pay and display like Ealing Hospital, ie 3 quid even for short stay, and still the devil's own job to find a space at bmost times? Good news that ain't, without there's some sort of refund for bona fide patients, like some supermarkets operate.And when I hear the dread 'PFI' I reach for my gun, or would if I had one.

Chris Veasey ● 6719d

Further to previous, have just been up to MLHC to collect something, and -  incredibly  -  a row of stout steel posts are being installed across the car park for a control gate and fence, albeit this will leave 4 of the existing patient parking spaces outside the gate.So after all these years of needy patients being crowded out of the car park by shoppers etc something is belatedly being done about it, just as the clinic prepares to move out.What do you reckon, cockup, conspiracy or both?

Chris Veasey ● 6719d

Yes, I noticed that last week.  It has always been difficult to park there.  Have they ever investigated what is happening with the parking ie who is parking there?In Devon where there are also parking problems we have been for some years able to request repeat prescriptions online which are taken by the surgery direct to the pharmacy.  We then collect when we are in town.  There is also a delivery service should you need it. This avoids the journey and the parking.

Philippa Bond ● 6719d

Whilst I quite agree some people will need to drive there or be driven surely if the clinic is for local people then local people can walk or cycle there? Perfect as it is based on the High Street. I wonder what the catchment area is for the clinic if they have such a thing?I would also hope that the staff are also local and will not need many if any spaces. Are they suggesting home visits?I am still interested to see if the clinic will be on two levels.

Norma Harrison ● 6719d

The clinic will definitely be on two levels - so markedly more space than the current site.

David Highton ● 6719d

"Whilst I quite agree some people will need to drive there or be driven surely if the clinic is for local people then local people can walk or cycle there?...I would also hope that the staff are also local and will not need many if any spaces."I agree.  But MLHC is also near the Uxbridge Road and still it's car park was almost always full. I'm all for most patients and staff using public transport(seeing as the new polyclinic has bus stopps almost immediately outside), but there are needy folk who have to be driven there by car. The nurses, doctors and ancillary clinical staff of the new polyclinic must be made to use public transport, if there are so few parking spaces available - this service is about the patients, not about the staff. C'mon Ealing Primary Care Trust, hows about listening to the customers(sorry patients, as our esteemed PM Mr Gordon brown is now doing!) and giving us what we want and not what you want? Sorry, I should have added a "please" to my last question(plea)(I mustn't forget to be polite, I may need you sooner than I think).  :-(

Gerry Tan ● 6719d

When the plans for the "Daniel Quarter" were initially approved, there were 50 parking spaces planned for the retail facilities.  I assume that the same spaces should be available for the polyclinic.Additionally:The ground between the development and the houses on Denmark Road was intended for a lorry turning area to serve the retail operation.  Which is obviously no longer needed for a polyclinic. After the development was approved, Daniel applied for planning permission (granted on appeal) to develop a further distribution warehouse immediately to the east of the development, served by the same access off Broughton Road.  Since no Daniel, there would seem to be no need for said warehouse.So why can't all the open space intended for lorry turning (and even the warehouse) be used to provide necessary parking?

Robin Hall ● 6719d

When well enough I am happy walking there for an appointment - I am sure it lowers the blood pressure!  The move will probably double the distance for a lot of people. There are other times eg the mega flu jabbings - or other such clinics when a lot of people would want to park in the vicinity at the same time. A day at the surgery is not my idea of a holiday!  Please make it so that we can stay as short a time as possible!!!

Philippa Bond ● 6719d

'...surely if the clinic is for local people then local people can walk or cycle there?'-  if that's what you really think check this url out and think again:-http://www.ealingpct.nhs.uk/content/downloads/board_papers/February2007/West%20Ealing%20Appendix%204.doc

Chris Veasey ● 6719d

Now that it is interesting. Why are people traveling so far to see their doctor based on those scatter diagrams? Is it because they moved and still want to be seen by their old doctor? Ignoring those extreme points on the diagram the bulk very close to the clinic.

Norma Harrison ● 6719d

There's an awful lot of 'extreme' points there. And even for those much closer, most have no (or no acceptable) public transport links with either site  -  although the Daniels site is very handy for those living in the Uxbridge Road corridor and certain others with direct bus services (and can physically withstand the walk to the bus stop, the wait -  in many cases at an unsheltered stop with no seating - and being thrown about in a bus) for many of us in the likes of South Ealing public transport might as well not exist  -  the walk at each end to/from the E3 bus stops is about the same as the walk all the way to the surgery  -  and you try that sort of walk if you've got a bad leg or foot (or two), let alone one (or more) more serious health conditions  -  or for that matter in driving rain even if you're fit.Doctors' surgeries, and for that matter hospitals, reckon to be for sick people, not the hale and hearty, so car access and adequate parking facilities ARE important even for those living not mfar away.

Chris Veasey ● 6719d

It may be quieter for residents next to 100year-old Daniels to have a clinic but its regressive for residents over a wide area to lose a department store, diminishing West Ealing shopping centre, which Daniels agreed to reopen as part of their planning permission. Whats happened to Planning Enforcement?

Robert Darke ● 6719d

My guess is that it's either left the Council or is touring the continent.

Philippa Bond ● 6718d

As with any new development is subject to planning restrictions.It is NOT a "Policlinic", no one yet know quite what a "polyclinic" looks like yet. EPCT will have them once it is clear what they are.It will have a number of different health related services, some are from the current MLHC and some are addition services. These include Pharmacy & Dentist etc...Parking is always a big issue, specially with car owners. But with the recent "natural" disasters in the Far East along with the ever increasing fule prices. Doesn't it make sense doe us to cut back on our carbon footprint and unnecessary use of car/vehicle. Lets look at it this way many more people don't have car and yet they managed to get to the MLHC clinic. Is it magic :-)?!

Jim Wong ● 6711d

As with any new development is subject to planning restrictions.It is NOT a "Policlinic", no one yet know quite what a "polyclinic" looks like yet. EPCT will have them once it is clear what they are.It will have a number of different health related services, some are from the current MLHC and some are addition services. These include Pharmacy & Dentist etc...Parking is always a big issue, specially with car owners. But with the recent "natural" disasters in the Far East along with the ever increasing fule prices. Doesn't it make sense doe us to cut back on our carbon footprint and unnecessary use of car/vehicle. Lets look at it this way many more people don't have car and yet they managed to get to the MLHC clinic. Is it magic :-)?!

Jim Wong ● 6711d

It is much easier to organise routine journeys by public transport - and not the occasional ones.Many people reduce their use of their car by combining journeys.Reducing the numbers of times that fit people have to visit the clinic by having a website where you can order your repeat prescriptions online and where they are collected by the pharmacy of the patient's choice - to then be collected by or delivered to the patient or patient's representative nearer to where they live/visit as part of their daily routine would help.  This system is already in place where my parents live in Devon.Offer people alternatives - they don't all have the same needs or wants.

Philippa Bond ● 6711d

My health centre, in Ealing Park, has a scheme of volunteer drivers to pick up the old and disabled. Has Mattock Lane nothing similar?The new centre surely has an advantage over the old of being on several bus routes. We don't have to drive everywhere.But if we do ... Waitrose is only two blocks away!

Susan Kelly ● 6710d

"It will have a number of different health related services, some are from the current MLHC and some are addition services. These include Pharmacy & Dentist etc..."So is there to be a relocation of the nearby pharmacy to the health centre?

Graham Weeks ● 6709d

I am surprised that there appears to be no basic website.

Philippa Bond ● 6709d

I don't know which pharmacy will be there or how EPCT will selection process is going to be.

Jim Wong ● 6709d

"....... a row of stout steel posts are being installed across the car park for a control gate and fence, albeit this will leave 4 of the existing patient parking spaces outside the gate."What do you reckon, cockup, conspiracy or both?"Well, to answer my own question (nobody else was apparently interested enough) it turns out to be CONSPIRACY with a vengeance  -  the newly gated-off part of the car park, containing most of the parking spaces, is now signed as 'Staff Only', while all the previous staff parking spaces also remain for staff only; thus drastically reducing patients (and liberty-taking local commuters, shoppers etc) parking to just a small handful of spaces.Clearly an utterly cynical softening-up exercise by the PCT in advance of the move to the former Daniels site where patient parking provison, if any, will be similarly derisory.And where on earth do all those hordes of 'staff' to fill up the vastly enlarged staff car parking work?  -  certainly no evidence of them within the existing Mattock Lane clinic/surgery to which this parking is attached.Seems to me the PCT has probably breached the conditons of planning consent for the existing Mattock Lane complex, which would (or cetainly should) have specified the patient/staff parking allocations, to be permanently maintained. Any Councillors reading this (if any) care to take this up to save us having to try to get some service out of the Planning Enforcement service (always a bitter uphill battle in this borough)?

Chris Veasey ● 6684d

Apperently talking to myself, but just to update and set the record straight on the offchance anybody's reading this:-On latest visit to Mattock Lane (Gordon House) clinic today, it turns out that while the newly gated compound remains firmly 'Staff only', most (though not quite all) of the former staff spaces in the car park area outside the compound have been reallocated to patients.This still leaves an adverse (and wholly inappropriate)  2:1 staff: patient parking provision ratio, ie reversed at least from the original provision which was there till recently. And all the patient parking space remains open to abuse by local shoppers, commuters etc, no measures whatever being taken to prevent or deter this.

Chris Veasey ● 6681d

My elderly no-longer-driving in-laws have recently experienced problems getting a taxi home from NHS clinics and hospitals.It is obviously easy to get a taxi there because you know what time your appointment is....  What facility will there be for those who are still fiercely maintaining their independence but come from a pre-mobile phone era?

Philippa Bond ● 6672d

Ad in Gazette says there is a public meeting this Tuesday to discuss the clinic's relocation. It is in the Princes Room of the Town Hall, 5.30-8pm; not hours conducive to good attendance IMO. Presumably PCT employees want to get off home.

Graham Weeks ● 6671d

It all seems to have gone very very quiet on the clinic relocation from Mattock Lane to ex-Daniels.Anyone heard anything recently?

Robin Hall ● 6587d

There is the good old fashion "housecall" service that GP can do if needed.

Jim Wong ● 6587d

A Planning Application from Building Better Health West London Limited (BBHWL) was scheduled for mid-July in an April 2008 NHS Ealing PCT proposal - but there is still no sign of it. The proposal also stated that the work on Daniel Quarter (or Lovelace House which it now seems to be called) would begin in October.Maybe the property development company BBHWL (owned by Allied Irish Bank, Alliance & Leicester and Meridiam Infrastructure) are having second thoughts about proceeding with this development. All kinds of building projects are being delayed or even abandoned all over the country right now.

Eric Alan Leach ● 6587d

A lot of the time a house-call is not needed - all that is needed is somebody to pick up the phone to the local taxi company ...taking up less of the GP's time - and very often it is just a check-up at the clinic.

Philippa Bond ● 6585d

You've pointed out earlier in this thread how your own elderly relatives had trouble getting a cab from a clinic. Presumably they have the means to pay for cabs but many of the elderly don't. House calls are the only way some people can get access to medical care.

Andy Jones ● 6570d

Andy,It may be beacuse they are eligible for "The Taxi Card" or "Capital Call" due to their long term condition. Also there is "Dial-a-Ride" is avilable for some as well.

Jim Wong ● 6570d

https://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/gettingaround/dialaride/travelassistance.aspThese schemes are all available in London.

Philippa Bond ● 6568d

According to reports on West Ealing Neighbours website, an announcement is due today that the long-planned clinic on the Daniels site is not going to happen.So, development of the ugly boarded-up storefront is again uncertain - I do hope that the space is used for something constructive!

Robin Hall ● 5954d

If so that will make one pharmacist very happy and another most unhappy.

Graham Weeks ● 5954d

It would be nice if an modern furniture or homeware shop like 'Dwell' moved into that space. Ealing is sadly lacking in decent homeware shops imho.

Penny Crocker ● 5954d

Just had a quick look at their website - it looks similar to Ikea although I would imagine it doesn't have the same price tag.

J Smith ● 5954d

Why has the NHS changed its mind. is it because Ealing A&E alledgedly is to be retained?

George Knox ● 5954d

A space for singing practice?

G Lord ● 5954d

That sounds great - I wonder what the acoustics are like.

J Smith ● 5954d

The formal statement from the NHS (now accessible at www.westealingneighbours.org.uk) uses a lot of words to tell us very little.A short summary might be that NHS cuts means there's no public or private cash for the project, allied to the fact that the Daniels family has run out of patience with the NHS and will look for cash from someone else to use the space.Who might want the space? A property developer might like to convert the space into flats I suppose. Does anyone have any better ideas? Who do we think might have the money to develop anything in the space?

Eric Alan Leach ● 5953d

It's nicer than Ikea and more cutting edge and not too expensive. (although dearer than Ikea) It's about the right size for one of their shops, that's why it popped to mind. It would be a shame to build yet more 2 bed box-like fats, don't you think? There are sooooooo many of those already. Not too much scope for anything else though.

Penny Crocker ● 5953d

Why have just the one shop in there?Thing is though Penny, this area is is short of housing.

G Lord ● 5953d

True but it wouldn't be social housing (I wouldn't think !) but I may be wrong

Penny Crocker ● 5953d

Isn't there a shortage of houses or larger flats rather than small ones?

Philippa Bond ● 5952d