Sir Ian and Lady Helen Wood have donated £10million to pay for a new multistorey car park at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary – one of the biggest charitable donations of its kind.

The money from the Wood Foundation, has been offered to NHS Grampian to ease some of the “stress and anxiety” suffered by thousands of patients and visitors every day.

Sir Ian said it was his wife who had pushed for the donation to be made after her experiences trying to find a parking space at the flagship hospital when visiting family and friends.

NHS Grampian said it was “absolutely delighted” with the pledge, and work could start as early as next year.

The car park will have space for 1,000 cars over five or six storeys, and there are plans to connect it to the main hospital building with a covered walkway.

Meanwhile, Sir Ian said he was also considering backing other big projects in the city.

He said the need to fund a car park at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary was clear because of the “quite depressing” reality that there was no solution in sight to the current problems.

He said: “My wife, Helen, has championed this project within the Wood Foundation because she has, for some time, been concerned by the distress felt by friends and family when trying to park their cars while attending for treatment or visiting loved ones in what is already a stressful situation.

“Helen and all of us have got not just one story but stories of family and friends, and in my case often employees, who went through a lot of anxiety trying to park their cars at the hospital.

“Going to hospital is never a pleasant experience. If you are a patient it is a very difficult experience and if you are going to visit it is quite an anxious time, particularly when it’s close family you are there to see.

“Quite often, they had to leave home an hour early because they knew they had difficulty parking and they would be left driving round and round in circles until they could get a space.”

Sir Ian said his donation meant NHS funds would not have to be directed away from frontline care into alleviating the parking problems.

It is one of the largest single charitable donations to the NHS in Scotland.

“When we looked at it there didn’t seem to be a public sector solution, it’s not the health board’s fault, they just don’t have the funds and they recognised it is a major shortfall in their facility,” the former chairman of the Wood Group said.

“With every pound of public funding badly needed for the care of people in the city and Aberdeenshire, we are pleased to be able to support a project which will not take money away from frontline services but will greatly improve the access to facilities for those visiting hospital.”

NHS Grampian said that 11,000 vehicles brought patients, visitors, deliveries and staff on to the hospital site every day.

Only 800 patient and visitor spaces are available at present – with the total to rise to at least 1,800.

Sir Ian said the “ball was now in the court of NHS Grampian” to move ahead with the project, with public procurement and planning processes now under way.

The existing car park opposite the main hospital entrance has been earmarked for the multistorey development.

Sir Ian said he would like the building to be named after someone – but that it would not be him.

He added: “We will talk to the hospital board about that but it certainly won’t be named after me.”

Professor Stephen Logan, chairman of NHS Grampian, said: “I am absolutely delighted to accept this very significant donation from the Wood Foundation on behalf of the health board.

“This will allow us to provide a facility that is much needed.

“I am very grateful to Lady Helen Wood for her personal support for this project.”

 

‘A tremendous gift’

The £10million donation from Sir Ian has been described as a “tremendous gift” to everyone using Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.

Councillor Peter Argyle, who represents Torphins and Banchory on Aberdeenshire Council, said news of the pledge had left him emotional after his difficult experiences at the hospital.

Mr Argyle’s wife, Natalia, was left unable to move or speak after suffering serious head injuries in a road crash near the couple’s home in 2013.

The anaesthetist is now in residential care, while Mr Argyle is looking after the couple’s young son at home.

He said his wife was recently admitted to ARI with an infection, and stayed for several weeks.

He said: “For a few weeks I had returned to ARI as a visitor and it was stressful, there is no question about it.

“Before you even get into the hospital, there is stress. They changed the system recently so if the car park is full, they simply shut the gate.

“The whole experience was a stressful nightmare – and that is even before you have stepped inside the hospital.”

Mr Argyle said he “took his hat off to Sir Ian” and the Wood Foundation for the “incredibly generous donation”.

“It will be a tremendous gift to everyone using ARI and, personally speaking, this means a lot to me,” Mr Argyle added.

Meanwhile, George Urquhart, 77, a former Kincorth councillor, said a multistorey car park was the “only logical solution” to the parking problems.

He was given a parking ticket after leaving his car on a grass verge so that his wife could get to a breast cancer appointment on time.

He said: “We were going round and round and round. I left the car and I was given a ticket.

“I was absolutely furious and I said I would see them in court. There was no way I was going to pay it.

“The whole problem dates back years. They should never have been given planning permission for all these new buildings without sorting out the parking first.”

Stuart Robertson, 67, a retired local government officer from Aboyne, said he had to add half an hour to his journey to ARI to give him enough time to get a parking space.

He said: “It is the same pretty well every time. It puts stress levels up – then you have to try to get to your clinic on time.

“At the airport they threw up a multistorey car park in quick time.

“If that happened at the hospital, the capacity would be dramatically increased and things made easier for patients and visitors.”

 

More projects on the horizon?

Sir Ian Wood said he is looking at funding other large projects in Aberdeen and Scotland.

His £50m plan to raise Union Terrace Gardens divided public and political opinion but Sir Ian said the Wood Foundation would support other ideas which would help to ease the economic challenges facing Aberdeen over the next 20 to 30 years.

He said: “We have said we will look at projects in Scotland so this is the first one

“We will look at further projects for Aberdeen.”

Sir Wood declined to be drawn on the projects he was looking at but said it was important to support other industries outwith North Sea Oil and Gas.

He said: “My real concern is the long term economic prospects of Aberdeen.

“We need to look at some of our industries which we have still got some quite good industries but they have had no attention while facing very high costs.”

Sir Ian said the food and drink sector, life sciences and tourism were amongst them.

He added: “Our thinking in Aberdeen will be focussed on what can we do to even out what will be a very challenging economic period for next 20 to 30 years.”

However, he said funds would only go to the right type of opportunities and relied on the “right type of support from the local authorities.

“We will look across Scotland but I have a particular concern for the negative impact of a complete dominance of oil and gas which has been a fantastic opportunity.

“Aberdeen sleepwalks. We have produced a whole lot of plans. We have got a city deal plan a city centre plan, but they are really based on Aberdeen as it is.

“Aberdeen has a serious changes economic changes and challenges it faces and they really have to be built in to all the thinking.”

He said improving people lives as the “only thing” that was important to him and all who worked at the foundation.

He added: “I think I try and do the right things but I do it because of the good outcome there will be rather than other people saying ‘isn’t that good, he’s done it.

“It is much more important is how you are able to judge yourself as opposed to how other people judge you.”