A nurse was left in tears after being given parking fines as she regularly worked longer than her 12 hour shift, before kind strangers stepped in to pay the bill.
Emma Chapman received two fixed penalty notices so far this week, despite paying to park £12.50 at the council-run Oldchurch Rise car park near Queen’s Hospital in Romford.
The issue arose as the senior sister A&E nurse regularly works saving lives for longer than the maximum 12 hours the tickets last for.
Staff members regularly have to rush out to pay another £12.50 to avoid being slapped with tickets, although doctors, nurses and porters are often too busy to pop to their cars.
When Emma’s husband posted about the issue on a professional networking site, several people stepped in to pay the bill.
The 40-year-old told the Metro: “When I came home after getting the ticket again, I was in tears because I was so angry that this keeps happening.
“After a busy shift treating patients in corridors and feeling disheartened by not being able to give the proper care they need, to come out and see a parking ticket on your car feels so demotivating.
“They only allow people to park up to 12 hours, whereas we are working 13-hour shifts, and I can’t just drop everything to move my car because I might be dealing with an emergency.”
She has now asked her local council to extend the maximum parking times for those working at the hospital to return to their cars and not find fines.
Husband Lee told the Havering Daily: “My wife, like most nurses, is under constant pressure and their work load really is unbearable.
“She had finished a 13 hour shift and it had been a really difficult one that had left her upset. All she needed was to return to her car and find that she had received her third parking ticket in the space of a week.
“It is beyond belief.”
The news of Emma’s fines came on the second day of mass walkouts by nurses from more than 55 NHS trusts in England over pay.
On Wednesday, the GMB union said more than 10,000 ambulance workers – including paramedics, emergency care assistants and call handlers – will stage strikes on February 6, February 20, March 6 and March 20.
Nurses are also due to strike on February 6.
Havering’s Leader of the Council, Councillor Ray Morgon said: “We appreciate all the incredible work our nurses are doing and we will act on this straight away.
“We will carry out a review and see how we can resolve this situation for our nurses.
“We will work with officers and have a look at Oldchurch Rise car park to see how we can help going forward and support our nurses.”
A spokesperson from Havering Council said: “We understand receiving a parking fine can be frustrating, but our enforcement officers can only work with the information they have.
"In two of these cases, the resident paid for her parking in two to three hour intervals using the parking app, and unfortunately the payment record hadn’t been updated on our enforcement officers devices in time, therefore PCNs were issued in error.
"These have now been appealed and cancelled.
“The car park in question does have a 12 hour limit, which we understand can be difficult for some hospital staff.
"We are currently speaking with the hospital to see what options we can put in place to avoid this issue in future.
"The car park is used by hospital staff, including nurses, as well as patients and visitors, so at present, we have no way of knowing which vehicles belong to staff.”
