Wigan GP practice forced to limit patient parking after reporting rise in on-site crashes

Standish Medical Practice has issued an explanation to visitors after revealing it would be limiting parking to people who are disabled or with young children to help protect its patients.

Surgery bosses have said that there has been “escalation” in the number of crashes in the car park due to a high traffic flow and vehicles parking outside of designated spaces.

The practice has released the following statement for patients and other visitors to the site: “Ambulances have been unable to access the site safely due to cars blocking the ambulance pick up point causing delays to patient transfer and further congestion.

“Thankfully so far only vehicles and fixtures have been damaged and no harm has come to any of our patients.

“We feel a point has now been reached where we need to take action to prevent any potential for this and so, after much deliberation, we have decided to close the car park to all but disabled patients and those with small children.

“This decision has come after seeking assistance from the council and our management company to seek out alternative parking within Standish without any luck and following requests from patients to improve access for these patient groups.”

The changes came into effect on Monday, October 7. There are currently only nine patient spaces at the site and patients are reminded that the rest are reserved for surgery staff.

Community forum, Standish Voice, has said that parking issues in the village are ongoing and that Wigan Council is working to resolve them as more people move into the area.

A spokesman for the group said: “Parking is one of the biggest problems facing the centre of Standish - and this will only get worse with the level of residential building in the village.

“The council is looking at solutions but we urge them to redouble their efforts to make good on promises they made a few years ago after they were presented with a Standish Voice petition alerting them to the urgent need for more public parking.

“We understand this problem is not easy to solve but further restrictions like this on private car parks means the council needs to have this issue at the top of its agenda for Standish.

“One solution of a small car park on The Rec on Southlands Avenue was not popular enough with the Standish community and is not an option.

“We are continuing to talk to landowners to see if another solution can be found.”