Parking adds up for dialysis patient

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This article was published 06/02/2016 (3511 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An East Selkirk resident says it’s unfair she has to shell out an average of $16 three times a week to park her car at Health Sciences Centre while receiving life-saving dialysis treatments.

Diane Marshall, 63, contacted the Free Press to tell her story after reading articles about high parking fees at city hospitals.

She said she purchased a special pass before Christmas to reduce the high daily costs, but a computer glitch has rendered the card useless so far. The “parking value card” cost $140 and was to be good for 20 visits.

Since it’s not working, she’s spending an average of $48 a week on parking.

“It just irks me. You can go gambling at all of the casinos, and you don’t pay a cent for parking,” said Marshall, a retired Manitoba Public Insurance employee.

She is on a waiting list to receive dialysis in Selkirk, close to her home. The commute to Winnipeg and the treatments can take seven to eight hours.

Like many Winnipeggers, the rural Manitoba woman is frustrated with the parking-fee structure at some city hospitals, where “daily” maximums apply between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., followed by an evening charge.

“Most of the dialysis patients aren’t out at 6 o’clock. We go in at 1 (p.m.), and a lot of us aren’t out until later on,” she said. “And it takes us a while to get to our parkade.”

Marshall said the hospital has offered a refund on the card she purchased before Christmas, but so far she’s not cashed it in.

She wrongly assumed that monthly parking rates — which at Health Sciences Centre cost $110 or $160, depending on the parkade — were only available for staff.

Monthly passes are available from HSC cashiers for patients and families, a Winnipeg Regional Health Authority spokeswoman said Friday.

The confusion suggests hospitals can do more to explain parking options to patients and families.

WRHA spokeswoman Melissa Hoft confirmed in an email HSC’s parking value cards are not working at the moment because of a programming issue.

“This is a universal problem across North America where 3M parking equipment is used. 3M has a team working on a solution, and HSC Parking is ready to implement it as soon as it becomes available,” Hoft said.

‘It just irks me. You can go gambling at all of the casinos and you don’t pay a cent for parking’ — Diane Marshall, on the cost of hospital parking

In the meantime, cardholders can still use the cards — but only at the William Avenue Parkade. To do so, they have to pull a ticket to enter the parkade and present the ticket and the value card to an attendant when they leave.

“To facilitate this process, the William Avenue Parkade booth is being staffed between the hours of 7 a.m. and midnight until further notice,” Hoft said.

The cards are not currently being honoured at the Emily Street Parkade (the most convenient location for Marshall), the WRHA spokeswoman added.

“Each of the Emily and Tecumseh parkades have signage directing Value Card holders to the William Avenue Parkade,” she said. “Parking Value Cards are not available for sale at this time. As more information becomes available we will advise accordingly.”

Local officials with the Kidney Foundation of Canada were unavailable for comment Friday.

However, Elizabeth Myles, the organization’s national executive director in Mississauga, Ont., said the foundation is currently surveying patients about the effects of kidney disease and dialysis treatments on income and the ability to work.

“Parking costs are among the many out-of-pocket expenses that kidney patients receiving dialysis may find to be a challenge,” Myles said in an email.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca