Hobart’s Argyle Street car park would be handed to the state and largely reserved for hospital staff, patients and visitors, under a plan from Hobart councillor and lord mayoral candidate Ryan Posselt.
The council-owned car park earns about $3 million a year and Posselt estimates it is worth upwards of $60 million.
Speaking to Pulse, Posselt said the car park would allow health workers to park closer and believes the council giving up the car park’s income was worth it to protect workers who have been assaulted walking to and from late shifts.
“If it means transferring the ownership of Argyle Street car park at a discounted rate to the state, so be it,” he said.
Under his plan if elected as mayor, he hopes the Tasmanian Health Service would run the car park and offer discounted parking to staff, patients and visitors, with only a small portion kept for general use.
CBD shoppers would instead be directed to a new multi-storey car park on the city fringe, such as North Hobart.
“Potentially the city could arrange for a shuttle bus service to get those shoppers into the city on a regular basis or work with Metro to have a regular Metro bus pass through that car park area and pick shoppers up for their last kilometer to the shops.”
Posselt said health workers had approached him a fortnight ago about their safety.
He said an oncology nurse was recently assaulted and needed time off work and a senior nurse was allegedly chased with a pair of scissors and fled onto the highway.
Another healthcare worker was so seriously assaulted on the way home that they returned to the hospital for treatment.
“Those nurses that are finishing work at 11 at night shouldn’t have to walk two kilometres up into the Domain or into North Hobart to collect their car,” he said.
Posselt said he raised the issue with Health Minister Bridget Archer, who put the parking problem back on the council.
In a letter to Posselt, Archer wrote that CBD parking, “including the car park at Argyle Street directly opposite the RHH”, was primarily the council’s responsibility.
“Any proposal to introduce free or reduced parking fees should be considered by the Council, noting this would likely need to be paid for by either reducing other services or by increasing rates,” she wrote.
She also said hospital security had “limited authority beyond Department-managed sites”. Tasmania Police was the primary agency responsible for incidents further afield.
Archer said she was sorry to read of the staff’s experiences and any violence towards them was completely unacceptable.
She encouraged the workers to use the department’s Employee Assistance Program.
She said the department’s Safety, Security and Quality Unit was working to strengthen security around the hospital, with improved duress alarms, more CCTV cameras and increased patrols.
Posselt had pitched a concept for a “combined workforce and mobility hub” for the health system at the Domain quarry, which he asked the government to consider investing at least $40 million into.
“It could provide secure and affordably priced multi storey parking within walking distance of the RHH,” he said.
However Archer suggested Posselt’s concept would not address the concerns he had raised.
“It is unclear how this would reduce the likelihood of unacceptable threatening behaviour occurring … and as such is not a matter for the Department of Health to consider.”
Cr Posselt agreed cheaper parking for health workers would come at a cost to the government and council, but accused the state government of cost shifting.
“It’s in stark contrast to the $44 million that’s being invested in the minister’s own electorate at the LGH to support staff to park, as well as visitors and patients at the Launceston General Hospital,” he said.
“It should be the minister’s responsibility to keep her staff safe going to and from shifts at the hospital, particularly at unsociable hours.”
“Having young women walking into the Domain at 10.30 at night on their own is clearly a recipe for disaster and I don’t know why the minister is so disinterested in protecting her staff.”
He said he would aim to meet with the health minister and premier to discuss handover opportunities for the Argyle Street car park within his first 100 days if elected as lord mayor.
