Visiting Time

Just another thing to get the "ripped off" feeling brewing.

The wife has spent a lot of time in hospital over the years, so I've spent a lot of time visiting her.
The maternity unit at Southend used to be in a different hospital at nearby Rochford, where you could stay most of the day and the parking was free with many available spaces.
About ten years back Rochford hospital was closed and the maternity unit was moved to Southend General.
It was always a problem to park there due to a lack of spaces, which was made worse when the extension was built to house the new unit.
At least you had the option of staying all afternoon if you'd made your way there by bus, or if you had took the car and found a space it was £1.50 a day to park.
The current situation is even less spaces and a rising scale of parking charges from £2 for 2 hours upwards, the visiting times have changed to two slots of two hours a piece forcing you to leave the premises in beetween.
So if you travel by bus by the time you've got home it's time to come back for the next visiting slot, so it's pointless using public transport which is pretty expensive these days anyway.
The roads around the hospital are all yellow lines and parking restrictions, and each road is patrolled by a team of traffic wardens and recently you never fail to see at least one policeman sticking cones in various places?

So to be a good husband and visit my missus for the four hours a day available it costs me a minimum of £4 - £5 a day or over £30 a week.

Also makes you wonder where the money goes, as the hospital services seem to decline all the time, the wife's dinner today was one slice of extra thin ham and some lettuce leaves!
There's a lack of nursing staff (my niece who has no medical training was working there at the weekend as a nurse to make some extra cash).