CAR PARKING
Uproar over parking RPAH nurses and midwives are up in arms over a private car parking operator’s profit grab.
Left to right Eleanor Romney (RPA Branch), Kylie Tastula (RPA Branch), Brett Holmes (NSWNMA General Secretary), Jan Dilworth (RPA Branch), Gerard Hayes (HSU) and Emma Maiden (Unions NSW).
NURSES AND MIDWIVES AT ROYAL PRINCE Alfred Hospital in Sydney’s inner-west are furious at changes to staff car parking arrangements, including a steep rise in fees and a planned cut in the number of parking spaces. Car park operator Macquarie International Health Clinic increased the parking fee from $25.75 a fortnight to $5 a day ($50 per fortnight) with less than two weeks notice. Macquarie then flagged its intention to cut the number of parking spaces from 1200 to 600. It is not certain whether any of these remaining 600 spaces will be set aside for staff. The car park has a troubled history. In 1996 the then Central Sydney Area
Health Service signed a lease with Macquarie for a proposed private hospital and car park. In 1999 Macquarie partially built a car park on the site to service the proposed private hospital, however construction of the hospital never went ahead.With private health insurance coverage at a record low of 30 per cent, Macquarie decided the project was uneconomical, according to media reports. In April 2000 the area health service took over the cark park via a court order and finished its construction. In recent years, federal government support of private health insurance through tax incentives and rebates has meant an increased demand for private hospital
22 | THE LAMP DECEMBER 2015 – JANUARY 2016
services, meaning a private hospital on the public campus would be more lucrative, according to a Sydney Morning Herald report. Macquarie won a long-running legal battle against Sydney Local Health District to control the car park site and took over operation of car parking on November 2 this year. SERIOUS IMPLICATIONS The change in control has serious implications for staff, visitors and the RPAH itself, Kylie Tastula, secretary of the RPAH branch of the NSWNMA told The Lamp. She said 2000 people currently use the 1200 staff parking bays and another 1500 are on a waiting list to access parking.