Nurse says parkade could bring relief to ‘painful’ parking issues at General

A nurse who has been robbed while walking to her car after work says a parkade at the Regina General Hospital could bring some relief to a parking situation she describes as “painful.”

Jennifer LeGard has worked at the hospital for seven years and parking has been a daily challenge. She said the wait to get a regular staff parking spot in the current on-site lot is 15 years, which is why she and many of her colleagues resort to street parking.

“A couple years ago I was robbed and attacked coming out to my car from a shift, so it’s definitely a huge issue,” LeGard said Tuesday — one day after the issue was raised in the Saskatchewan Legislature.

Last week, she came out to find two parking tickets on her windshield because she couldn’t get away to move her vehicle because she works in the intensive care unit.

She noted visitors and patients deal with the same issues of risking parking tickets and feeling unsafe in the area.

LeGard is happy to hear the government has directed the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) to study the feasibility of building a parkade.

“It would be a huge asset for us,” she said. “You would feel more safe (and) secure (and) your vehicle would be more secure. I know there have been lots of social media (posts) about people coming out to find their vehicles and having their windows smashed. That’s an ongoing thing too.”

LeGard said she would feel safer going to work and leaving and she would be open to paying to have the security of a parking spot. She is not getting her hopes up just yet, though.

“I think we all kind of have the attitude that we’ll believe it when we see it,” LeGard said. “It’s great that they’re addressing it and they’re talking about it, but we’ve had the conversation before and nothing came of it.”

LeGard doubts anyone will get too excited about a parkade until they see real evidence of planning it.

Karly Simpson is of the same mind. She said she’s a little reserved about the idea of a parkade right now because she doesn’t know if it will actually happen.

“I think it’s more of a political motive than anything to do with our safety or the fact that we’ve raised concerns because it has been years of this,” said Simpson.

She thinks it might have something to do with the fact it’s an election year. Simpson said she has doubts, in part, because in the fall when she said the employees tried to bring up the problem again, they were told a parkade was a no-go.

“(Officials said) a parkade is not feasible, it’s not going to happen (and) we need to deal with what we have,” Simpson said.

According to Simpson, the hospital has done what it can by doing things like improving the park-and-ride but she said it’s not feasible for everyone.

Simpson said there just aren’t enough spots. She had been told that it was a 10-year wait to get an employee parking space at the hospital, but recently she was told she will never be able to get one.

Simpson said it would be amazing if a parkade really could be built, but she won’t believe it until she sees it actually start to be built.

In the meantime, LeGard said she is lucky to have access to a weekend spot in the parking lot and she is using the short-term solution of a park-and-ride program whenever possible. However, she said the park-and-ride program is not very convenient for health-care workers when they often have to stay a bit later than their shift.

LeGard said staff members can’t leave a woman in labour because they have to go move their car or duck out on a patient who is coding because they’re going to miss their bus.

The same goes for family members who are waiting on news with a loved one in surgery and don’t want to leave to move their car.

From her perspective, a parkade would provide peace of mind to the people who are trying to concentrate on caring for patients or family members.

— With files from 980 CJME’s Lisa Schick

Editor’s note: The correct spelling of Jennifer LeGard’s name has been updated.