Mobility Management at Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital
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Staff and Volunteers |
Patients and Visitors |
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Nov 2004 |
Dec 2007 |
Nov 2004 |
Dec 2007 |
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Car (Driver) |
53% |
40.8% |
36% |
34.2% |
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Car (Passenger) |
7% |
9.5% |
38% |
39.5% |
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Hospital Park & Ride |
7% |
10.1% |
5% |
3.8% |
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Bus |
7% |
8.3% |
7% |
12.2% |
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Walk |
16% |
22.3% |
7% |
3.8% |
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Cycle |
4% |
6.1% |
1% |
0.4% |
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Other |
6% |
2.9% |
6% |
6.1% |
Surveys November 2004 & December 2007
The car share for staff and volunteers decreased substantially. whereas the Hospital Park & Ride share, bus, walk and cycle share increased substantially. The bus share of patients has also significantly increased.
All of the RD&E sites are within the Exeter City Council boundary and they are the local Planning Authority. Devon County Council is in overall charge of the transport policy and is responsible for regulating the bus services. All the bus services are provided by private operators and whilst there are one or two county services run by other operators, all routes within the City boundary and the majority coming into the City are operated by Stagecoach. The dedicated hospital Park & Ride service is contracted to Dartline and is funded solely by the Trust, although Devon County Council are responsible for the Park & Ride site.
Since 1999 Exeter City highways have been the responsibility of Devon County Council.
In 1995, Exeter City Council in line with Devon County Council’s policy, restricted the number of parking site across the Wonford and Heavitree sites to 1500, excluding that for residents, although this has been reviewed slightly as services on the Wonford site has developed. The current spaces on the Wonford and Heavitree sites are 1380 and 253 respectively. Planning permission has to be sought in order to increase the number of spaces, e.g. when new buildings are constructed although in reality, the physical restrictions on available space and the high cost of providing a multi-storey car park impose a greater pressure to manage the parking spaces.
Mobility management is key as both hospitals have restricted parking spaces, which in some instances are decreasing due to new buildings on the site, that in turn bring increased demand through provision of additional services and an increase of staff. In addition, new policies within the NHS (such as "Choose & Book") mean that the hospitals must be seen to be accessible to patients from a very wide area, as they are competing with other hospitals for patients in an increasing number of clinical areas.
The Park & Ride and bus routes are not formally part of OPTIMUM², but are part of the package of measures running to provide alternatives to car travel, for accessing the hospitals, by staff, patients and visitors. The service is free to staff and promoted as an alternative when they are not eligble to park on site (see parking management). The Park & Ride hours were extended in June 2007 to 10.30 pm to enable shift staff to use the service.
A walking Promotion Week was held in April 2005, in conjunction with the Trust’s Health Information Centre's 'Healthy Lifestyle and Exercise' promotion. This included providing messages and information on the benefits of walking and other exercise, to help promote health.
Although not part of the OPTIMUM² project, strict parking management measures are in place at both sites. Parking permits are issued to staff based on the following criteria: home location; the need for the use of their car for work purposes and shift working. Permits are generally not issues to staff living within the city of Exeter boundary or within easy access of the Park & Ride site. Recently some shift staff have also been denied permits with the introduction of longer operating hours for the Park & Ride in June 2007. Where permits are issued the related annual charge depends on the salary bracket of the staff member i.e. those earning more pay a higher charge. The charges range from £80 to £350.
The cost of using the Park & Ride for staff is free of Charge, providing they are in possession of a Park & Ride permit, which is charged for at half the rate of a full on-site permit, which can also be used for parking on-site between the hours 0f 16.30 and 08.30 Mondays to Fridays and at any time during weekends and bank holidays.
For patients and visitors, the parking charges are up to 2 hours £1.40; 2- 4hours £2.80; over 4 hours £5.60 or weekly £20.
Enforcement is carried out by Exeter City Council and the penalty charges are the same as for those charged in Exeter City Council car parks.
The Trust has integrated a Travel Bureau within the existing Car Parking Office. From this office advice is available on alternative travel means, including timetable information. Supplies of timetables for all local services are available, either in hardcopy or accessed via the internet. The aim is for this to be the source of information regarding all transport and parking services available the hospitals. Information is available on:
In addition ‘Infopoints’ have been set up at two of the RD&E Wonford main entrances, where people can make, free of charge, calls to the Travel Bureau office, Trainline, Stagecoach, Travelline, Exeter Airport, a local taxi company, for travel and other information .
There are travel information pages on the staff intranet and public internet sites. See http://www.rdehospital.nhs.uk for the public site.
The project is managed day-to-day by the Royal Devon & Exeter NHS Foundation Trust Car Parking and Projects Manager (Bob Adams) with others (Linda Hall, Ted Merson, Sally Bowden and Peter Rowe) involved in the planning, development and finance.
Due to constraints within the main concourse area of the hospital, where it was intended to set up the travel bureau, this is now integrated within the car parking department, in an on-site satellite building. As a result the provision of the ‘Infopoints’ was made in order to provide a point of contact at the main entrances.
The construction of new facilities on the site also made it difficult to install cycle storage cages until later in the project.
More widely, the fact that the NHS, and specifically the Trust itself, has been in a process of change has made it more difficult to plan travel information provision appropriately. However, Over the current life of the project and increased relationship has developed between the Trust and Devon County Council. The Trust has worked with the Council on producing the ‘Buses to the Hospital’ leaflet, providing and analysing traffic counting systems, assisting in the setting up of the Trust BUG and promoting cycling to staff. In addition consideration of alternative travel infrastructure is now included in planning new developments.
The award of funding to Exeter as a "Cycling City" has also meant that more funding is now available for additional measures such as cycle training.
The Trust is represented on the Exeter Cycle Forum and the Exeter Public Transport Forum.
A variety of different methods have been used to market alternatives to the car for staff. These include:
For further or more detailed information on Mobility Management within the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust please contact:
Bob Adams, Car Parking and Projects Manager (Bob.Adams@rdeft.nhs.uk) or Sally Bowden, Site Travel Administrator (Sally.Bowden@rdeft.nhs.uk)
