When you think about car park management, parking enforcement companies and parking charges, there are probably lots of words that spring to mind.
Compassion is unlikely to be one of them.
Car park management is not typically seen of as being a compassionate service, but at Creative Parking Solutions, being compassionate is one of our most important qualities.
Because when you’re managing the car parks of some of the biggest NHS hospitals and trusts in the country, compassion is what makes the difference.
The importance of sensitivity
In any hospital environment, there’s a lot going on. Ambulances are speeding up to A&E departments 24 hours a day, patients are arriving for routine appointments or emergency situations, and family members are visiting their loved ones.
All NHS car parks are under a constant demand, and the pressure is on to manage them effectively. Because unlike retail parks or office blocks, the stakes are a lot higher at a hospital.
Emotions are at heightened levels, so it’s important that any car park management system can respond to sensitive situations. Not only must parking wardens be compassionate to the needs of individuals, they also need to be sensitive to larger events.
Responsive to emergency situations
For example, in a hospital environment, car park management services must be able to respond quickly to changing circumstances and emergency situations.
If there’s a major trauma, additional access routes and parking spaces might need to be made available to emergency services. Police services may need a place to set up nearby, and so car parks that might ordinarily be closed off will need to be sequestered for this purpose.
That’s what you would expect from agile parking management.
But there is much more that takes place beyond this; circumstances which require compassionate parking wardens.
Taking care of family members
Because in emergency situations, it’s easy to forget the family members who rush to the hospital to be with their loved ones.
These are the people who don’t arrive by ambulance; they follow in cars. It’s therefore imperative that they have somewhere to park quickly – and have nothing else to worry about.
When they’re rushing to be with a husband, wife, son or daughter after a tragedy, the last thing they need is the stress over where to park and how much that might cost.
That’s why you need a compassionate team on the ground. You need individuals who can identify when a large situation has taken place and know how to respond accordingly.
In these situations, our team of parking wardens are instantly on hand to help visitors park quickly and safely (making sure that access routes are always kept clear). They are there to guide loved ones, put their minds at rest, and get them to where they need to be.
Our wardens regularly do a job far beyond parking enforcement. They act as guides, counsellors and even hospital porters at times – because they know how to be compassionate.
They have covered almost every scenario imaginable, from comforting loved ones to delivering babies.
Dealing with extraordinary situations
Death is one of the most difficult situations to deal with, and it was never more apparent than in the aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing.
Naturally, car parking management had to respond quickly at Central Manchester hospitals, where the wounded were taken, where royal visits took place, and where the attention of the world’s media was focused. This required careful car park management.
But compassion was more important at another hospital in Oldham, where the region’s largest morgue is. This was where the bodies of all those tragically killed were taken, and where family members would have to say their final goodbyes.
Nowhere was a strong, compassionate parking management solution more vital. And thankfully, our team of wardens were exceptional in their response, opening up car parks and doing every possible to support families in their time of need.
Supported by technology
In these situations, compassion also needs to be supported by good technology, which is where Creative Parking Solutions also excels. This includes immediately suspending restrictions on barrier-controlled car parks or turning off ANPR car park systems in emergency situations.
Our wardens are able to instantly cancel PCN’s (Parking Charge Notices) on the spot, so if a ticket has been issued to a family member who has suffered a loss, the ticket can be immediately scrapped without the need for any appeals or paperwork.
This small compassion makes a big difference. And it’s just one of the reasons why our customers choose Creative Parking Solutions.
Is your car park management service as compassionate as it should be? Get in touch to learn more about how our wardens can transform perceptions at your trust.
