RUH makes changes to parking system

Royal University Hospital (RUH) in Saskatoon has changed the way its parking system works.

Similar to the parking systems at City Hospital and St. Paul’s Hospital, RUH now has a pay-on-arrival system instead of one that allows hospital-goers to pay when they leave.

According to Jim Allen, director of infrastructure, programs, support and standards for the Saskatchewan Health Authority, the change was made instead of replacing the aging gates from the old system.

“The gates were really old and in need of replacement. We couldn’t get parts for them and it was really difficult for us to keep them running reliably,” he said.

“So we were kind of faced with a challenge to replace all of the parking gates in the city with something else.”

But the change isn’t sitting too well with many hospital-goers — especially the fact that they can now receive a ticket if they go over time.

“The onus is more on us,” said Joanne Lloyd. “Before, we used to be able to park here and just leave and pay the one time and be OK. So I think that’s a downfall for everyone here.

“We should be busy worrying about the people that are in the hospital rather than the parking.”

Allen says the SHA recognizes the problems associated with the new system but believes it has advantages for both the hospital and the users.

“I agree: Nobody wants to get a ticket and we certainly don’t want to give out tickets. However, we do need to enforce our parking so that’s the methodology that we used,” he said.

“Obviously there is a significant advantage for us, the owner of the parking lots. It costs a lot of money to install gated parking systems and it costs a lot of money to maintain them. These modern gateless systems are much less expensive to operate.”

He said the benefits to hospital-goers will be the efficiency of the system.

“The best option for people is if they can download the HangTag app that helps you manage how much you pay for parking in a couple of ways,” said Allen.

“When your time comes due, it sends you an email message that you need to add time and you can just automatically allow the app to add a little more time with your approval. So that’s certainly the best way to manage your time.”

The new system has pay stations at various locations in the hospital. The stations take credit cards and coins but no cash or debit cards.

“I don’t mind it too much. The biggest downfall is you have to pay with coin, so you have to find someone to change your cash,” said Lloyd.

“There’s no debit just credit card, so we spent more time trying to change our $20 bill so we can pay for it. Other than that, it wasn’t a terrible experience but I liked just paying for the one time when we left.”