‘We recognise that struggling to park can be frustrating and worrying for our patients when they are attending our sites for a healthcare appointment or to visit a loved one’
Royal Albert Edward Infirmary (Image: Joel Goodman)
A Greater Manchester hospital is opening a new car park that could finally solve the ‘frustration of patients struggling to park’ for their appointments.
Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (WWL) has been officially given its brand-new multi-storey car park. The new 356-space multi-storey car park will be open to patients and visitors at Freckleton Street, adjacent to the Royal Albert Edward Infirmary site on Friday, January 16.
The development has also created an additional 64 surface spaces for trust staff, and will include 21 disabled parking spaces and 20 electric vehicle charging points.
Mary Fleming, Chief Executive, said: “Car parking is an important part of our patient and visitor experience, and we recognise that struggling to park can be frustrating and worrying for our patients when they are attending our sites for a healthcare appointment or to visit a loved one. We are delighted that we can now open this long-awaited facility to patients, visitors, and staff as this development has been very much needed for quite some time.
The new Royal Albert Edward Infirmary Car Park(Image: WWL)
“I would like to thank our community and residents who gave us some valuable feedback during the engagement period, and for their support during the construction work.”
The new car park development promises to ‘significantly improve overall car parking capacity’, providing the group of Wigan hospitals in the WWL trust with an additional 420 parking spaces in total. Around 60 more parking spaces have already been created for the public at the WWL’s Leigh Infirmary site, and new card payment machines are available at all sites to enable both cash and card payment for car parking.
The multi-storey adjacent to the Royal Albert Edward Infirmary (RAEI) is a ‘modern and user-friendly designed car park, which includes electric vehicle charging provision, external cladding, which will improve glare by reducing light spill, and an overall safe and secure parking system’, according to WWL. It follows other recent changes to the hospital trust’s car parks, including a new ANPR system and improved groundwork.
The development has created an additional 64 surface spaces for trust staff, and will include 21 disabled parking spaces and 20 electric vehicle charging points(Image: WWL)
Tabitha Gardner, Chief Finance Officer said: “We have made great strides with our car parking provision at WWL over the last year, and we want to acknowledge the support we have received from our patients and visitors. We understand that parking at our RAEI site can be frustrating, but we hope this fantastic new facility will greatly improve the experience of visiting our sites.
“I would also like to thank our incredible estates and facilities teams who have worked so hard alongside our partners to complete this development in just under a year.”