Hospital Car park charges

[Matt Hill]

The Welsh Assembly Government have decided to abolish NHS hospital car park charges. Patients, staff and visitors will be able to park free at almost every NHS hospital in Wales by the end of 2011.

The story is here : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7273649.stm

This is an issue that carers have raised with Carers UK before, especially when they need to make regular visits. In this case the UK government have been critical saying they think the Welsh Assembly is wrong. (read more on this clash on BBC website)

What do you think?

[gordie07487]

wow yet another good one. We are very fortunate in that we do not pay charges yet. Alice's chemo is done at home via injection. We do have to go to hospital every 4-5 weeks g.p. appointment every 4 weeks. I do know of people who we see on a regular basis who a overnite stay in hospital for chemo. The car park charges are very expensive for those who have cancer and regular visits to hospital.
Of course we all know the only reason hospitals charge for parking is the revenue they make from it and I would like to bet the money is not put back into car parks or camera's or even security for the car parks. even after they give the sub contractor their bit, it runs into millions. I cannot see any hospital in England giving up that imho.
Gordon

[philippa_150712]

"the Department of Health (DoH) said the move went against the UK government's climate change strategy."

So climate change is due to people driving to visit sick people in hospital? And parking charges will put people off visiting people in hospital? Then why is it more expensive to visit someone in hospital than to park in town etc?
That's got to be the lamest excuse yet for what is effectively a tax on the sick and relatives of the sick. The govt are totally out of touch with public opinion on this. Why don't they fess up. Extortionate hospital parking charges are due to overly generous PFI contracts where the public cover the risks and the private sector pockets the cash (billions of pounds of public money)

Belle

[charles47]

There is no good reason for parking charges that make it harder for people to attend hospital for treatment or to visit someone. One thing that has happened here is that two of the three hospitals (all part of one trust) have allocated a major part of what was the public car parking to staff. This has made it so that it is still extremely difficult to find a space and the cost is exorbitant! Far higher even than our city centre, which is by no means cheap. The third hospital's car park is a joke - the smallest of the three. Some years ago it was effectively waste ground, but much larger. With a donation from tarmac it was resurfaced. Two MONTHS later, building work started on the oncology unit, which took over 1/3 of the existing car park at the time, and charging was introduced. Since then, the car park has reduced further in size and there are no concessions for anyone.

This is totally out of order. As everyone has said - a tax on the sick and on the poor. When can I move to Wales?

[Guest]

And, according to the Times, the NHS is forecast to be £1.8 billion in surplus this financial year :

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/p ... 479152.ece

I can't decide whether to move to Wales for the free prescriptions and hospital car parking or Scotland for the free care .

[chmaja]

Hi,

Does your hospital have a scheme whereby people who have to go for regular treatment or to visit an inpatient can pay less? Do they have a special scheme for people who have chronic conditions? That does not just mean cancer as there are hundreds of peple affected by constant visits for care and treatments.

Do you know your hospital do not use the money for the car parking, security etc? Have you asked them? Have you looked at their website to check if there is info there? If not then ask them !

Do they have any set up with the bus company for park and ride via the hospital? IF not again ask them! I know before I get PM's that not everybody can use this but many might benefit!I know for a fact it works in some Trusts and so why not aks them? An email is not going to cost you anything but a few seconds to type it!


Staff in other employment often have to pay and so when staff charges were introduced this was the arguement used for that one! Here there are car sharing incentives for the staff and that works too! There is also a park and ride scheme for the staff to keep them far away from the hospital and yet ensure their safety as remember they are coming and going at all hours of the day and night.

If we don't like something and we don't ask questions to the right people we won't know ( yes the obvious again!) What have your local patient and public involvement forum done to help you? Did you ask them to help? Hope their responses are on the CPPIH website ..I will go and browse later to see what you all asked and what was done to help you all.

Chris

[g.herschel]

You just cant park at the Freeman hospital in Newcastle well you can but you have to get there before 08-00 we used to have about 10 disabled parking bays near the entrance they were taken over by the " private hospital taxi service " and are always empty as the drivers drop their patients of at main door then off they go we have some disabled parking near cardio block but parked on top of them is mobile x-ray vehicle now dont get me wrong in the new car park there is quite a few disabled bays but they are over 200 mts from main door ??? last time i visited i parked in what was the last disabled bay within the whole complex but as i walked to the hospital with the old doll in wheelchair i was told i could not park as this car park was only for amputees ? i was told they would clamp our car if it was not removed i reminded the stroppy clamper that it was against the law to clamp a car which is exempt from excise duty his reply "not if its on private land " WRONG when i got into hospital looked at the information pack and indeed you can park in any disabled bay .
now however iam led to believe due to new contracts the hospital has been split up and you must use only certain disabled bays for the part of the hospital you are using

some hospitals allow parents of young children to reclaim parking charges young STAN has just be able to do that constant parking free of charge so well done NORTH TYNESIDE HOSPITAL.

when ever we make appointments we try to make them for 09-00 just so we can park last year we had to go to the GENERAL HOSPITAL every week for about 6 weeks we got to hospital for about 08-00 and even then disabled bays were full now the moaning starts they were indeed full by night shift hospital staff or their partners waiting to take them home so we had to sit and wait for a bay near main entrance they only have about 12 bays for disabled dont know what its going to be like when supermarket opens up thats right they have sold land to suppermarket chain .

[rosemary]

Morning George,

I hear you about Freemans car park.Busiest hospital in the area but so few places.I once drove round over 30 minutes and that is not an exaggeration cos I timed it.In the end I parked in one of those private ambulance car spaces as was about 7 empty.Had it been for ambulances themselves I would not have done it.I wrote registration of my car on a piece of paper plus clinic we were going to and handed it to car security fella stood at the main entrance.Told him to phone when he had found me a place but no way was mam going to miss her appointment.
You seen the multi storey one at the back of the grounds George,for staff.It should have been for both staff and visitors.

.

[chmaja]

hospital for about 08-00 and even then disabled bays were full now the moaning starts they were indeed full by night shift hospital staff or their partners waiting to take them home so we had to sit and wait for a bay near main entrance they only have about 12 bays for disabled dont know what its going to be like when supermarket opens up thats right they have sold land to suppermarket chain .

George, please contact your hospital patient and consumer affairs dept and tell them about this! People might need to come to the hospital at any time of the day and night and if theya re disabled and these bays are full from other people then what are the Trust going to do about it?

We did that here and won! No more problems with staff parking in blue badge spaces here!! They even made some special spaces for the "Chest clinic staff " who loved ot use them so they could pop in and out all day meaning patients stood no chance!

Ask and see what happens! Go to the media with it if need be! they love a good story!

Chris

[Guest]

Hi
Our Hospital is in the top Ten Charges for hospital parking so it said in the Sun.
That's the Luton & Dunstable.
£2.50 a hour no concessions for Disabled been there 4 times this week.
John