B.C. front line health care workers slapped with parking tickets following long shifts as they fight COVID-19
Posted March 29, 2020 8:23 am.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — As frontline healthcare workers work around the clock to try and treat those infected with COVID-19, many find themselves facing parking fines following their shifts.
Upkar’s wife is a nurse at a Lower Mainland hospital and says staff have been struggling to keep up with busy emergency rooms and sick patients.
He says he was shocked to learn his wife was slapped with an $80 ticket at the hospital parking lot.
“Parking their vehicles there tend to be frontline staff nurses and doctors. I was appalled that Impark would be issuing fines and tickets,” he says.
He suggests a temporary grace period for hospital staff as they continue to work throughout the outbreak.
“A bit of compassion. During this time and contribute by, perhaps not adding an additional strain to hospital staff. When then they have enough on their plates at the moment.”
He says staff usually have parking passes, but she had forgotten it that day, and in a state of exhaustion, she forgot to pay.
“Considering everything that they’re going through the number of shifts they’re putting in each of those shifts could be normally 12 hours, but you know in this crisis that could be 14, 15 Plus. Along with that. There’s a lot of exhaustion.”
An online petition calls on John Horgan to allow free parking at all B.C. hospitals for staff, as they work on the front-lines of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The person who started the petition says it’s the least that can be done to help doctors, nurses, and other hospital workers.
So far the petition has over 900 signatures.
NEWS 1130 has reached out to Impark for comment.
