Royal Preston Hospital

My focus in this review is exclusively on the parking and access services for disabled patients. The NHS staff are excellent and in my opinion are able to turn a pigs ear into a silk purse every day and twice on Sundays. Disabled parking bays at all car parks in Preston Royal Hospital are unmonitored and only fractionally larger than standard bays. There are no longer bays so patients exiting the rear of a van style WAV have to do so into the road and pray drivers are paying attention. All of the pay and display car parks on the site are extremely difficult to exit in a wheelchair as the curb at the side of the barrier is quite high. The only wheelchair exit in the bulk of the car parks is at the opposite end to the disabled parking spaces. Forcing wheelchair users to travel down the middle of the car park road or risk getting run over by an unsighted driver reversing out of their space. Most of the pavement areas around the car parks are in shocking condition and many have cars parked on them. On one of my visits a contractor actually deliberately parked a foot from the rear of my disabled vehicle whilst I was parked in a disabled parking bay with my disabled blue badge showing. He refused to allow me to enter my vehicle and pointed at his park anywhere permit and laughed. Very disabled friendly! As of today, I have to admit I haven't yet had the biggest insult and been given a parking fine by a parking attendant whilst exciting the vehicle, an honour thus far reserved for the Lytham pier parking attendant, but that's a different review. Once inside the hospital at a departmental entrance, not the main entrance, which again, my favourite gripe, a manual outward opening door. Hello, a wheelchair ramp, leading to an outward opening manual door. How the hell is a wheelchair user or a crutch user supposed to get in? Waiting out in the rain till a good Samaritan passes does not quality as disabled feckin access. Any how, we are in the hospital and the staff are impeccable, helpful, polite and accommodating. I was directed to a lift and it was opened for me, I rolled in, pressed the button for the second floor, the door closed, nothing happened, well not exactly nothing, as the door closed I realised there were no lights in the lift. It turns out its a safety issue, you have to keep your finger on the button or the lift stops. I couldn't find the buttons in the dark, fortunately someone pressed the lift button on another floor but again, not disabled friendly in the slightest. This is not a reflection on the Dr's, nurses and admin staff who in my 50 years of using the NHS, have always gone above and beyond. Suffice to say, this hospital fails dismally to meet the most basic standards of disability access.