Let’s just get to the point: parking at hospitals should be the last thing anyone should ever have to worry about, and such an issue is compounded when we start asking people to pay for parking.

Very seldom will people ever go to a hospital with the first thing on their mind being ensuring they have their working credit card or their parking change readily available.

It makes far more sense to have people register their licence plates with reception and sign out on their way out of the hospital with a notice stating that all vehicles not registered with reception will be ticketed or towed at owner’s expense.

This will keep the parking lot available for everyone whilst keeping all parking costs down for those who need it.  Nobody should ever have to pay extra to go somewhere they never thought they needed to go.

Photo: February 28th, 2018; Ottawa General Hospital; Credits to Mike Vlasveld (if not allowed, please let me know so I can remove it right away)