The nurse says she feels "let down" by her city despite helping her community through her work.

A Christchurch Hospital nurse given her fourth parking ticket in three years says staff are being penalised by a lack of parking options despite the important role they play in the city.

The nurse, who did not want to be named for fear it would affect her career, found a $65 ticket on her car when she returned to a Wilson Parking site after staying late at work to help a patient who went in to cardiac arrest.

During a clinical emergency, staff are expected to stay and complete their role before handing over to the next shift, she said.

FAIRFAX NZ The nurse was given a $65 parking fine after staying late to help a man suffering a heart-attack. FILE PHOTO.

"I was taking the blood from the patient's femoral artery, so none of that would have got taken [if I hadn't stayed] and we wouldn't have known what his oxygen levels were doing."

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She felt angry and disillusioned when she found the ticket.

"I felt let down by my city; I felt let down that there I was trying to help the community and I'm getting $65 worth of parking fines and I'd already spent $10 on parking that day."

She planned to ask for the fine to be waived, which she had done successfully on one previous occasion.

A Wilson Parking spokeswoman said if there was a legitimate reasons for lateness the firm would consider waiving a parking fine. "In the case of this nurse the fine will need to be waived."

It is the fourth fine the nurse, who lives in Burnham south of Christchurch, has received – and the second fine for over-staying at a private parking area.

Other fines were for parking too close to an intersection and over yellow lines outside a demolished building site.

Last week, New Zealand Nursing Organisation members at the hospital started a petition asking hospital management to provide more parking for staff and the public.

Like her fellow nurses, the woman worked day, night and afternoon shifts and said parking for the afternoon shift was the hardest to find.

She has been on the waiting list for a space in the afternoon staff car park on St Asaph St since starting at the hospital three years ago.

The nurse said she tried to walk to her car with others finishing her shift but it was not always possible as everyone parked in different locations.

"You definitely walk with your keys between your fingers, you know, keep it ready if you need to do something and I'm always looking over my shoulder – it's just a regular thing now."

She wants health and city authorities to show they are making hospital parking solutions a priority.

"I feel like if they have managed to build a whole new rugby stadium and this big indoor [sports] complex, which I think will be fantastic, but they haven't managed to build us a new car park building.

"Their priorities are all out of line."

In a newsletter to staff, Canterbury District Health Board chief executive David Meates said the board, executive team, general managers and leaders in the health system were "extremely concerned" about the parking situation but future options remained a "vexed issue".

He confirmed the afternoon staff car park, which had 267 spaces and 187 people on the waiting list, would become a parking facility for Christchurch's new metro sports facility when it opened in 2019.

He encouraged staff to consider alternatives such as cycling and catching a bus to get to work at the hospital.