Fury as traffic wardens slap £130 parking tickets on ambulances bringing cancer patients to one of London's biggest hospitals

Traffic wardens are targeting ambulances for cancer patients parked outside one of London’s  biggest hospitals.

The private ambulances and medical cars are being hit with £130 fixed penalty notices for parking in streets outside University College Hospital’s Macmillan Cancer Centre, as they change shift or transport non-emergency patients to and from it for treatment.

The vehicles leased by G4S are parked on double yellow lines near the specialist unit where patients have appointments including chemotherapy. Sources told the Evening Standard that G4S, UCLH’s private transport contractor, have been issued with scores of tickets amounting to tens of thousands of pounds in fines over almost two years.

The firm’s managers believe the fines are “ridiculous” and “lack  commonsense”. One ambulance driver, who was parked in Capper Street by the cancer unit, said: “It’s been going on for a couple of years. They don’t let us have five minutes’ peace before they give a ticket. There’s nowhere to put vehicles.

“We get three or four a day on  ambulances. The late shift park up and come back the next day with a ticket.”

The employee confirmed that  drivers are not forced to pay the  penalty fines, as tickets are handed over to a G4S control room. He added:  “Often we have to park outside and help the patients in wheelchairs get to their appointments and then come back outside to find a new ticket. They are vulnerable people and some  are at the end of their lives. It’s  ridiculous.”

Traffic regulations allow vehicles such as ambulances to park on double and single yellow lines, as well as on red routes, in an emergency. But there is no provision for medical transport or non-emergency vehicles.

G4S transport services managing director Russell Hobbs said its vehicles “provide a vital service” and it was essential their ambulances can park close to the hospital. Many cancer patients use the ambulances as they are not meant to travel on the Tube because their immune systems are lowered by chemotherapy and other treatments.

Camden council employ wardens through a third party firm to enforce parking restrictions and said it has asked the hospital and G4S to discuss how they can “maintain access and park non-emergency vehicles in  permitted areas”.

A hospital spokesman said: “We are working with both G4S and Camden council to ensure adequate provision of space designated for picking up and dropping off patients.”