Plaid proposes solutions to the Maelor hospital parking crisis

Plaid Cymru is calling for a task force to finally get to grips with the parking crisis at Wrexham Maelor Hospital.

The call comes after a Freedom of Information request to Betsi Cadwaladr health board revealed more than 27,000 missed appointments at the hospital  in the past year alone and an admission that there was no monitoring of whether disabled parking bays were being abused.

Councillor Carrie Harper said: "Lots of people are discussing the ongoing problems with parking at the Maelor and its a longstanding problem. As far back as 2018 myself and Councillor Marc Jones met with senior managers to discuss this and we're told they were considering options. Clearly nothing has happened to improve matters. If anything, things are getting worse. 

"This is a massive stress for patients, staff and visitors. I have a family member currently undergoing cancer treatment and we're having to arrive early to be able to make sure we have time to find a parking space - thus blocking up more parking spaces for others. This is not what people need and people are parking anywhere and everywhere in desperation.

"That's why we submitted an FOI back in November to ask a series of questions of the health board. It's just come back and they confirm that there were 27,000 missed appointments in 2025, they don't know how much the parking situation is impacting that but clearly it will be to an extent. The demand for appointments is growing - it increased by 12% between 2023 and 2025, which will also increase the pressure on parking. We're all living longer, treatments are getting better but it does put extra pressure on across the board and that needs to be planned for.

"In terms of what the Health board are planning to resolve the parking problem, the answer unfortunately is not a lot. They say they have no funding allocated to deal with parking, despite having a car park of 1600 spaces. These include just 85 for disabled parking and, anecdotally, we've been told that many of these are used without blue badges - probably by people struggling to find another parking slot."

Plaid Cymru locally is proposing that a taskforce that includes the health board, Wrexham Council, Welsh Government, patient and staff representatives look at urgent solutions. 

Cllr Harper added: "From discussions with Wrexham Council, there are six buses every hour going from King Street to the hospital so there is already an existing bus service - even if it's disjointed and not being advertised as such. To have that promoted as a means to get there without using a car will have some impact

"There's no one single solution to this but here are some that would make a material difference to staff, patients and visitors. It needs to happen now, if it doesn't happen now, we will set this up after May if we're representing our area at Welsh Government.

"There are 4 key options which need to be explored urgently: 

1 - Additional land - There is potentially more land in public ownership that could be considered for additional parking adjacent to the existing car park. 

2 - Multi-storey car park  - Could this be an option on the back car park? The health board said building a multi-storey would be disruptive but that's true of any new development.

3 - Park and ride - Other Welsh hospitals have this and it makes a massive difference. We also need to look at this in terms of the wider needs of Wrexham, including the football and other events, which again highlights how important it is to get everyone around the table.

4 - Barrier system/ ANPR - This works in Cardiff which has an ANPR system and parking is free for the first 4 hours. This needs exploring and costed.

"Let's be clear - there will be cost implications for all these ideas but the alternative is to do nothing - that put lives in danger and adds to the stress people are already facing having to go to hospital.

"We haven't got the monopoly on good ideas, so tell us what you think by filling our survey below."

Please let us know your views:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdlg8QR0_ry86C63RYD7Z5la9jjTJfTM4FfxznDRUlCCpuuow/viewform?fbclid=IwY2xjawPkIARleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETBQNE94c0F2dVo3WFdwZ0hhc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHvXjGOVo5MDHYCS7h3uLJC1JeWKOKvkm7zhreVzQWWZfYBgC4GzQWxb_VUS4_aem_JlnXD8TwFNscPOCOMOGhXg

Below is the FOI response from BCUHB:

Thank you for your email, and please accept my apologies for the time it has taken to secure responses for you on the various points raised.

 

We fully recognise the very difficult situation regarding parking at all of our main hospital sites, and especially at Wrexham Maelor Hospital, and we understand the concern and frustration that this causes patients, visitors and staff.

 

Unfortunately resolving these issues, both in respect of creating additional capacity and improving enforcement, requires resources that the Health Board on its own does not have.

 

With regards first to the number of missed appointments:

 

Year	2023	2024	2025
Missed appts	25676	24375	27479
Booked appts	488472	495130	547225
DNA rate	5.36%	4.9%	5.0%

 

There are many reasons for missed appointments, with the principal causes including patients who are too unwell on the day to attend, difficulties with childcare arrangements or other caring responsibilities that prevent people from leaving home, other conflicting appointments and weather and travel disruption.  While we understand that difficulties with car parking can also cause patients to be unable to attend an appointment, we have no way of measuring the number of appointments missed due to car parking issues.  However, as the DNA (“did not attend”) rate has remained fairly consistent over the past three years, it appears that the increasing pressures on our car parks are not leading to any material increase, suggesting that this is a relatively small factor in the number of missed appointments.

 

We are also unable to estimate the costs of these as the cost of clinic sessions varies significantly between different specialities. However, as DNA rates are relatively consistent, we do overbook clinics slightly to minimise the risk of clinic time being wasted.

 

You will also note that the number of booked appointments has increased by around 12% between 2023 and 2025, illustrating the growth in activity on site and helping explain the greater pressures on parking capacity.

 

In terms of capacity, the site has around 1,600 spaces, 85 of which are designated for people with a disability. A further 250 spaces are available by the Plas Gororau building, next to the Ramada Hotel. There is little other land adjacent to the hospital that could be available for conversion to parking – a couple of areas have been offered but with an ongoing cost attached. The creation of a multi storey car park on one of the existing car parks would cause immense disruption due to the loss of parking while construction takes place, especially as previous LA planning advice is that a building that projected above the hospital’s existing roofline would not get consent, therefore to get a meaningful increase in capacity with a limited number of decks this would need to occupy a large area. Consideration has also been given to the installation of a pre-fabricated deck over the railway line car park, which should be less disruptive, although it would still cause a reduction in parking capacity while work takes place. In all cases, considerable capital funding would be required and we are advised that this is not something that Welsh Government would prioritise given the competing demands on public finances.

 

A park and ride service has also been considered, but again we have been unable to identify a suitable available parking area that could be used. This would need to be a properly surfaced and lit area, to ensure it is safe for use by patients including those with limited mobility, with sufficient available spaces and close enough to the hospital that a connecting bus service can operate with reasonable frequency. And, again, it is unclear how the leasing of land and operating of a bus service would be financed.

 

On enforcement, the Hospital Management Team has pulled together a costed plan for the introduction of a number of measures including red zones, ANPR and barriers, but again without available funding this has not been able to proceed. A staffed car park management service would be costly to operate – this was in place previously but had to end when Welsh Government ruled out hospital parking charges. Consequently, at present the Health Board does not have any way of addressing inappropriate or dangerous parking or misuse of disabled spaces. We have met with the local authority about enforcement of the main road through the site and in regards to supportive measures; currently they have no capacity to support but our joint dialogue continues.

 

Charges were, historically, a good deterrent against misuse of hospital parking. Unfortunately, there is ongoing anecdotal evidence that people are parking on site for non-hospital business, taking advantage of the fact parking is free and within walking distance of the city centre. A further factor that is believed to be increasing the pressure on parking spaces is the number of patients who are arriving on site far ahead of their appointment times to maximise their chances of finding a parking space. While this is an entirely reasonable action on an individual level, the net effect is to add to the problems as it increases the number of cars on site at any one and the length of time that cars are being parked for, making the situation worse for other drivers.

 

Unfortunately, quantifying parking demand and any misuse of spaces is very difficult. Parking surveys have been conducted in the past, but while they provide basic data on the number of vehicles entering the site, the value of this information alone is limited. A more sophisticated survey, that tracked vehicles entering and leaving the site, to allow dwell times to be calculated, would be of slightly greater value, but would still not enable us to identify those vehicles that were misusing the car parks or those that were arriving well before their appointments and occupying spaces for an extended period.

 

I am not aware of any recent approaches to local authorities with regards to local public transport provision. However I understand that meetings are being planned, involving the Health Board, Wrexham Council and Welsh Government, to explore what options there may be to improve the parking situation through partnership arrangements.

 

In terms of other transport options, Welsh Ambulance Service operates a transport service for patients who would otherwise be unable to attend hospital due to their clinical conditions:

https://ambulance.nhs.wales/services/non-emergency-patient-transport-service-nepts/

 

The NHS Wales 111 Website also provides details of local transport providers who may be able to assist patients:

https://111.wales.nhs.uk/localservices/ViewLocalService.aspx?id=8173&s=Non-Emergency%20/%20Alternative%20Transport