LETTERKENNY University
Hospital has been commended by the Irish Cancer
Society for its car parking scheme for cancer
patients.
Unlike most of the hospitals around the country, the
society said it understood that Letterkenny "makes
arrangements that allow cancer patients free or
reduced parking for the duration of their visit".
The Donegal acute hospital is highlighted in the
Irish Cancer Society’s ‘Park the Charges’ report as
being "an example of good-practice for its car
parking policy for cancer patients".
Elsewhere, cancer patients can pay up to €63 a week
in car parking charges, the report states.
It also highlights the financial burden of car
parking on patients and their families.
One cancer patient, Gerry Carroll who was in
hospital for 115 days for treatment for acute
myeloid leukaemia, told the society his family spent
a whopping €1,200 on car parking charges while
visiting him.
Irish Cancer Society head of services and advocacy,
Donal Buggy, said cancer patients are already
undergoing physical and psychological stress without
added financial pressure.
“People undergoing treatment are facing real
hardship in having to deal with additional costs and
large drops in income, and high car parking charges
only add to this. We have proposed a set of
guidelines for hospitals to the HSE, that, if put in
place, would make a big difference to cancer
patients," said Mr Buggy.
The society also runs the Volunteer Driver Service
providing transport for cancer patients to and from
chemotherapy treatments, which currently operates at
21 different hospitals nationwide including
Letterkenny.
This year alone, the service provided 21,350 drives
to 1,163 chemotherapy patients, covering more than
one million kilometres.
In Donegal, 718 drives totalling almost 55,000km
were covered by 36 Irish Cancer Society volunteer
drivers.
To find out more about hospital parking charges in
your area and to sign a petition calling for the HSE
to issue guidelines around car parking visit
www.cancer.ie . Read our previous story on
Donegal Volunteer
Driver Service . |
