Wexford nurse receives parking fine while tending to dying patient
Wexford PeopleA Co Wexford nurse who received a parking fine while tending to a dying patient has had her appeal rejected by the county council. The nurse was in the space for 25 minutes having been urgently called to tend to the elderly patient who was in palliative care.
Raising the case at the monthly meeting of the Gorey Kilmuckridge Municipal District (GKMD) Councillor Nicky Boland asked whether there were any mechanisms in place to provide some leeway for the town’s district nurses.
"There’s eight district nurses in Gorey town, one of them received a parking ticket recently and tried to object to it because she received it while tending to someone who was dying; is there anything we can do for these nurses who deal with end-of-life patients?” asked Cllr Boland.
“She’s very frustrated, she was parked in the space for 25 minutes but she didn’t have time to get a ticket because she was hurrying to care for someone who was about to pass away. She went through the appeal process and it was turned down.”
Reluctant to provide specialised permits for one group of workers, district manager Anita McLoughlin said there are “lots of different healthcare workers” in the town and the council has to be “consistent” in its actions.
“The district nurses wouldn’t be considered standard healthcare, they would generally be dealing with quite serious incidents,” replied Cllr Boland.
“We don’t give them to any healthcare workers, not even to doctors, so if we’re going to give it to one group we’ll have to give it to everyone,” said Ms McLoughlin.
Cllr Boland received support from Cllr Mary Farrell who argued that “some discretion could be used in certain circumstances” as these nurses were not calling to houses “just to administer medication”.
Seeking a viable compromise, Cllr Boland suggested a record of the seven nurses’ car registrations be kept on file and that, if they were fined in future, the charges could be vacated if they were caring for an end-of-life patient at the time.
“That’s very reasonable, we understand these are exceptional circumstances,” said director of services Liz Hore who added that she would look into the situation further on Cllr Boland’s behalf.
On the issue of carers, Cllr Darragh McDonald had a query regarding parking permits for family members of an ailing relative. Asking that one permit be issued per household or extended family, he also wished to see the regulations amended to allow permits to be granted to those with elderly relatives.
These discussions came on foot of proposed new parking by-laws for Gorey; and one proposal which has already been drafted will see people with electric vehicles required to pay while they charge their cars. Siobhan Lynn of the council’s roads department explained why this decision had been made.
“People were pulling in, lifting the bonnet and pretending to charge the car but not actually charging it; just so they could use the space to avail of free parking.”