Thunder Bay hospital solves patient drop-off problem
'Assisted pick-up and drop-off lane' allows drivers to park for a maximum of 10 minutes
Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre says it has resolved a patient drop-off hassle in its driveway.
Last spring, the hospital hospital drew complaints from people dropping off and picking up patients when it started cracking down on stopped cars at its main entrance because the driveway was actually a fire lane.
A security guard was stationed to redirect drivers to the parking lot.
In May, Peter Myllymaa, the Regional's executive vice-president of Corporate Services and Operations, pledged to work with Thunder Bay Fire Rescue to deal with the issue.
On Tuesday, a hospital spokesperson confirmed that Myllymaa had issued an internal memo announcing the solution.
"We learned from the input of the hospital architect that the front entrance fire lane exceeded the Building Code requirements," the memo said. "Therefore, there was much support and rationale to re-designated the route."
The memo said the driveway in front of the hospital's main entrance will be an "assisted pick-up and drop-off lane," with a maximum parking time of 10 minutes.
The fire lane is now a different section of the driveway, with the primary fire access route remaining at the east entrance going into the cafeteria.
