AS a locum working in histology at Blackburn Infirmary, I was amused by your story about staff parking. (LET, May 8).

The NHS is already one of the few employers who have the cheek to charge employees for parking without the guarantee of a space.

Misfortunes such as family illness, work commitments or just full car parks incur the wrath of those modern pariahs of the roads - the clampers. This can mean that hospital workers are penalised, via fines, for serving the public.

Parking around the Infirmary is, perhaps rightly, restricted in favour of residents. But the rapid growth of the hospital and Blackburn's ludicrous road system make walking and parking an ever-increasing nightmare.

All the staff want is to be able to come and go to work safely and on time, while serving the public to the best of their ability.

Yet, the so-called patient 'watchdog' tells us to stop whineging.

I agree that patients and visitors require parking, but they cannot be treated if staff are unable to get to and from work safely.

It is people like Community Health Council Chief Nigel Robinson, the 'planners' of Blackburn and the health authorities who are to blame for this shambles.

It certainly gives the lie to their mantra of 'investing in people.'

The staff want a sensible solution to this problem not the totally ludicrous park-and-ride scheme, which adds hours to the working day and would not cater for on-call staff or shift nurses.

Are these people waiting for staff to be an hour late coming from Queen's Park Hospital via the jammed-up rat-runs that Blackburn calls a road system?

Or, worse, are they waiting for a young nurse to be beaten up or raped walking to her car at QPH after the buses have finished at night?

S J HARWARD, Infirmary Road, Blackburn.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.