Strangers pay nurse’s £40 parking fine after ‘harrowing shift’ saw her go over 12-hour stay

A&E nurse Emma Chapman has been repeatedly fined for parking for longer than 12 hours in the staff car park of Queen’s Hospital (Picture: Susannah Ireland)

Strangers rushed to pay a nurse’s £40 parking fine after she worked a ‘harrowing and upsetting’ 13-hour night shift.

Emma Chapman, 40, was given her second Fixed Penalty Notice this week by Havering Council – despite paying £12.50 to park.

According to Emma, who works as a senior sister A&E nurse at Queen’s Hospital, her colleagues are also regularly handed fines.

This is apparently because their parking tickets last for a maximum of 12 hours – even though hospital staff often work 13-hour shifts.

But when the nurse’s husband Lee posted the parking fine on LinkedIn, kind-hearted strangers rushed to help cover the cost.

Emma told Metro.co.uk: ‘When I came home after getting the ticket again, I was in tears because I was so angry that this keeps happening.

‘After a busy shift treating patients in corridors and feeling disheartened by not being able to give the proper care they need, to come out and see a parking ticket on your car feels so demotivating. 

‘I was amazed by the response on LinkedIn because I felt in the past that I hadn’t been listened to.’

Strangers rushed to pay Emma’s fine after her husband Lee posted a picture of it on social media (Picture: Lee B/LinkedIn)

She’d had a ‘harrowing and upsetting’ 13-hour night shift (Picture: Susannah Ireland)

Emma has warned hospital staff are struggling to cover the cost of their parking fines, as many are already working extra shifts to help with the rising cost of living.

‘Obviously, A&E and ITU nurses are not allowed to strike, but we do need higher wages to cover the cost of bills, and I’m even taking up extra shifts to be able to,’ she said.

‘To then see I have a parking ticket, it’s really disheartening, because I lose out on a good couple hours worth of pay to cover the cost of them. For the cleaners and porters, it means even more for them.’

Now, Emma is pleading for her local council to recognise nurses have shifts longer than the maximum parking ticket time.

‘They only allow people to park up to 12 hours, whereas we are working 13-hour shifts, and I can’t just drop everything to move my car because I might be dealing with an emergency,’ she explained.

Emma says the council needs to be mindful of hospital staff working for more than 12 hours (Picture: Susannah Ireland)

‘We are also trying to retain staff at the moment, especially as we have a lot of agency staff, and if they are getting fined that is not going to help.

‘I think the council needs to be more mindful that we are working shifts longer than the maximum length ticket.’

Havering’s Leader of the Council, Councillor Ray Morgon, told the Havering Daily: ‘We appreciate all the incredible work our nurses are doing and we will act on this straight away.

‘We will carry out a review and see how we can resolve this situation for our nurses.’

Emma said she was reduced to tears after finding she had been fined following a difficult shift (Picture: Susannah Ireland)

A spokesperson from Havering Council said: ‘We understand that receiving a parking fine can be frustrating, but our enforcement officers can only work with the information they have.

‘In two of these cases, the resident paid for her parking in two to three-hour intervals using the parking app, and unfortunately the payment record hadn’t been updated on our enforcement officers devices in time, therefore PCNs were issued in error. These have now been appealed and cancelled.

‘The car park in question does have a 12-hour limit, which we understand can be difficult for some hospital staff.

‘We are currently speaking with the hospital to see what options we can put in place to avoid this issue in future.’

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