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Parking is last thing you should need to worry about at ER

Surrey - The Editor, Recently, I had reason to be dropping off my partner to the new emergency department at Surrey Memorial Hospital.

While there, I discovered to my horror that not only was there no temporary parking to assist the patient with initial drop off and admission but there is no free parking to wait with the patient. Instead, parking costs $4.50 per hour.Fortunately for us (from a parking cost perspective) it was a critical care admission and was only parked at ER for two hours.On top of that, when I was rushing to get my partner to the hospital, the last thing on my mind was change or even having to pay for parking. (I guess that is where having a credit card comes in handy.)But what if a person does not have a credit card or forgets it and does not have any change?This has to change. This is a major hospital with a very busy ER. With wait times exceeding six to eight hours, how can people afford to drop off a family member to ER and wait for the outcome? That privilege would cost in excess of $50.Oh, and then to top it off - I got a ticket. I came back to see a ticket on the windshield for $84 for not having paid at the electronic meter. Fortunately I kept the receipt. My ticket was issued within six minutes of having paid for parking.With the stress of someone in critical need of emergency care, the last thing one needs to be concerned about is paying for parking or worse, getting a ticket for being too absorbed with the family member in ER.Martin RooneySurrey