The addition of visitor parking fees will be part of a slate of changes to parking procedures at Yorkton Regional Health Centre in the near future.
Beginning in early 2012, visitors using the parking lot will be charged an hourly fee, enforced by an automated entry/exit system to be built in January.
The Sunrise Health Region began charging its staff for parking at all facilities in 2010 as an extra revenue source. Visitors will be charged based on a separate fee structure which has yet to be finalized, said Sunrise director of communications Sharon Tropin. There are currently no plans to implement visitor parking fees at facilities other than Yorkton Regional Health Centre.
Other changes to the centre's parking lot are already in place. The visitor lot is now exclusively accessed through the east entrance between the hospital and nursing home. A barricade separates the parking lot from the front entrance, which now functions solely as a patient drop-off area. The change was made to "reduce congestion and to improve parking accessibility and flow of traffic," according to a Sunrise news release.
