Some hospital employees unhappy with parking situation

WILMINGTON -- We have been tipped off that some New Hanover Regional Medical Center employees do not like how the hospital is handling the parking situation. Hundreds of hospital employees are forced to park these days at a remote lot. New Hanover Regional Medical Center is building a new women's and children center. In the process they've lost room for parking and forced hundreds of employees to park off Carolina Beach Road. An employee who uses the bus system to get from the remote lot to the hospital said, "It's an inconvenience to almost everybody. People with kids have to get up earlier, you know, it's an inconvenience." The hospital says there will be an end to the busing. New Hanover Health Network public relations spokesperson Jon Evans said, "Right now there are about 225 employees still parking out there riding the bus back and forth to the campus here. By July all the employees should be back here on the New Hanover Regional Medical Center campus." But until construction is done -- and that's months away -- the challenges of being shuttled to work continue. "Hurry up with the construction back there and just get more parking for us, because it's really an inconvenience," one employee said. Some New Hanover Regional Medical Center employees have to wake up an hour earlier just to park here at the remote lot on Carolina Beach Road and they say it can be an inconvenience. "A lot of people make it here just in time to make the shuttle, so a lot of people don't make it on time and they have to wait for the next one to come and leave and it then puts you off because they're late for work," an employee said. And to avoid being late for work people may park illegally. Other employees aren't bothered by busing. Kirsten Jones said, "This is very convenient for me. It's not out of my way at all. I actually came from a place in Virginia where we not only had to park off site, but we had to pay extra." As the construction continues on campus other lots will open up with a target of July 2007 when all the employees assigned to work o campus will be allowed to park on campus. If you are a hospital employee and receive a parking ticket, the hospital says to call the hospital special police as it could be dismissed.