A review into Darlington Memorial Hospital car park is still ongoing three months on.
Visitors previously slammed the 'car parking nightmare' at the hospital after one woman missed the passing of her grandmother because she was stuck for finding a space back in October.
Complaints previously included that the car park was often full and not large enough for the capacity of the hospital and the demand for spaces.
Others voiced their concerns over a lack of disabled bays, broken down ticket machines, and the knock-on effects for residents of surrounding streets with people moving to park around there.
However, three months on, the review is still ongoing with no update on the progress.
In the current way the parking is ran one woman who spoke to the Echo back in October, missed the passing of her grandmother because of issues she had in the car park.
She said: "Myself and my cousin went to go sit with her, after the family were called in.
"We drove around the car park for 45 minutes looking for a space and then had problems with the ticket machine not working.
"By the time we managed to get up to the ward my gran had already passed ten minutes earlier, so we never got to be with her whilst she was dying as we were stuck in the car park.
“With the car park handing out fines, I didn’t dare leave my car not in a space as there and wasn’t anywhere else to safely leave it.”
She added: “I’ll be surprised if anything is done about it, but we can hope it will be. It is bad enough for appointments or visiting times, but it is even worse when it is your loved one’s final moments.
"I didn’t know at that time that that would be the last time I would get to see and speak to my grandma whilst she was alive.”
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A spokesperson for County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust previously said: “We understand the concerns raised regarding parking at Darlington Memorial Hospital and appreciate the feedback from our patients and visitors.
“Currently, Synchronicity Care Limited, in partnership with the Trust, is reviewing parking and traffic management across both Darlington Memorial Hospital and the University Hospital of North Durham.
"This review aims to recommend and implement improvements that will benefit all users of our facilities. We also encourage visitors to consider alternative travel options where appropriate. We remain committed to exploring all practical solutions to improve parking for our patients and visitors.”
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