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    • Kicking a sick man when he’s down


      The NHS. We love them. No-one can argue with the fantastic work they do, and the millions of lives they save each year (well, some can, but that’s not really the point, is it?) But there’s one thing that really angers me, and that’s having to pay for parking when visiting.

      You might think I’m a bit late with this comment, after all, surely this is old news? But after a recent article caught my attention, I feel compelled to moan about this issue which has actually bothered me for years.

      Hospital workers this week said it is a “joke” that they have to pay to park their cars at work, and it is. Employees at Burton’s Queen’s Hospital in Staffordshire flooded the Mail’s website this week with complaints of having to pay ?11 a month to park in the staff car parks, and worker Amanda Bally was just one of many to have her say. “I know it is only ?11 a month”, she states, “but when you think of ?132 a year, it is a lot”. But hang on just one second.

      Before anyone starts jumping on the bandwagon, let’s spare a moment for both patients and visitors who are also not only obliged to pay for the privilege of, er, going to hospital, but are facing fees of up to 58 times higher than the average NHS worker. Because let’s say, an NHS employee works a minimum of 40 hours a week (and that really is minimum), then by dividing this into their monthly fee of ?11, we can see they are spending just 0.069 pence an hour. Compare this with the maximum band of ?4 per hour that the coalition government recently announced is acceptable for hospitals to charge visitors, and you’ve got a colossal discrepancy.

      It makes absolutely no sense. By all means, stop child benefits, cut university places, and increase VAT, if necessary, but for goodness sake, kicking those that are already obviously down by charging an extortionate amount of money to receive medical care? Surely this just defeats the whole purpose of a free health service!

      Headlines like “NHS budget escapes Osborne’s cuts”  have been excitedly filling the healthcare pages of the media since plans were announced (intermittently, of course, in between an equal number of challenges to these claims in the form of headlines such as “NHS facing ?6bn a year shortfall”) , but ultimately, if the real beneficiaries of the NHS were truly being protected, these disgusting fees (which, by the way, have existed for almost as long as I can remember), would have at least been reduced, if not scrapped altogether.

      After all, if the two shopping centres which I so habitually frequent can still allow me to park for free, then what the hell does the NHS think they are doing?


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      • Not sure about this one at all. Speaking from a Welsh perspective, when the Welsh Assembly abolished car parking fees in our hospital and provided free parking for staff and visitors, was it surprising that the hospital car park (a short walk from the town centre) became full all the time, especially on market day! It costs the organisation a significant amount of money running car parks, why on earth shouldnt it be allowed to claw some of that cost back from those wishing to park in the vicinity. Perhaps a free parking ticket for those with appointments would get over your difficulty with charging the users? I agree entirely with efmcandrew.
        petnev | 29 December 2010
      • wotatwat-I have to say, I hadn't thought about that side of it...you raise a fair point! Although, I don't know if this quite justifies just how much the fees are...
        Joanna Lowy | 19 November 2010
      • The previous Labour government began a consultation last year on how to implement a pledge by then health secretary Andy Burnham to scrap hospital car parking charges within three years. This proposal has been put in the bin by the coalition governments health 'tsar' Simon Burns. You voted Labour out - now deal with the consequences... ie. Tory toffs and professional bleeding heart Liberals who ALL come from rich backgrounds anyway WHO can afford to pay car parking charges AND do not give a damen about the rest of us... BIG SOCIETY my poor working class backside!
        CallMeDave | 19 November 2010
      • As one of the most despised species namely NHS managers and being responsible for car parking for a major hospital trust may I give the other side's view? Whatever parking facilities are supplied they will never be right. Everyone who comes to the hospitals I oversee is a special case when it comes to parking,. Nearly all expect to park for nothing as they are ill, visiting a relative, are upset, cannot find their special reserved free space less than ten feet from whichever access door they fancy using and so on. The list of reasons is endless and sometimes very inventive We do what we can with pay on exit facilities, season tickets (weekly or monthly at a major discount), no charge for long term sick patients and their relatives and carers, the terminally ill and their relatives and carers and so on. The car parks cost the hospitals money even though we spend as economically as we can on maintenance, lighting, security cameras, attendants/security patrols, traffic lighting to aid entry and exit onto busy feeder roads etc. In the end the English taxpayer is paying for medical treatment not to subsidise the proportion of our customers who travel to see us by one form of transport over another. Quite honestly, free of charge car parking has its attractions from a operating viewpoint, but whether people would wish to leave their property on an unlit, insecure, ill drained, potholed area during the hours of winter darkness is another matter. Our first priority is and will always be on healing, the sick, those in pain, the frightened and the dying. Frustration over car parking problems is unfortunate, but at the side of the foregoing is in the main a trivial matter.
        wotatwat | 19 November 2010
      • Last year I had a very difficult pregnancy which meant having hospital appointments 3 or 4 times a week over several months. I live in a rural village and getting to the hospital in question would have meant a journey of approx 2 hours each way on 3 different buses. Not ideal when you are pregnant and sick so I used to go in the car. Some random examples of car-parking difficulty, encountered on different occasions: Driving round and round the car park for 35 minutes (literally) trying to find a space until I was late for my appointment and almost crying with the stress (blame it on the hormones ...). I was on the verge of just going home again when fortunately someone pulled out of a space and I got in. I was told off at the reception desk for being late for my appointment. Arriving at 3:45 for a 4pm appointment; waiting in the waiting room until finally seeing the doctor at 6:15pm; going back outside to discover that I had been charged ?8.40 for the privilege. Car park very badly designed so that it was almost impossible to get out if you were at the far end of it at a busy time: on one occasion I backed out of my space and then sat still for 42 minutes before being able to move towards the exit. By which time the parking ticket which I had paid for at the machine had expired so the barrier wouldn't let me out. Machines only taking coins - I had to go to the bank every week to get ?20 - ?30 of pound coins for the week's appointments. But my all-time favourite, which you really need when you've been ill and sat in an overheated, overcrowded waiting room all afternoon: paying for the parking and getting a receipt which thanks you for your custom and asks you to please call again. Fortunately for me this only lasted until the baby was born; if I had been suffering from a long-term illness, or if the baby had needed to spend a lot of time in hospital, I think I would really have been driven to depression by it all.
        Melior | 19 November 2010
      • Over my lifetime, I have had a few really unpleasant and chronic medical conditions. The NHS is such that I have simply never been able to get treatment on it, so I have either endured the pain and disability (which has resulted in a shorted life expectancy) or when I could find the money, I have paid privately. I am not the only one in this predicament. I don't have a car and I have only ever had one for a few years in my life, because I could not afford one. If you are too mean or miserable to pay for parking, then pay for private treatment and give somebody else a chance to get NHS treatment. You could try selling your car and using public transport. I think the hospital's resources should be spent on its treatment not on maintaining car parks. We really have turned into the want it all for nothing society.
        efmcandrew | 19 November 2010
      • I must be a tight fist I very rarely pay to park anywhere if you want to charge I shop else were. Hospitals are different I only go if absolutely necessary. My local hospital North Middlesex its ?4.00 for two hours but there is plenty of street parking nearby When my father past away In Darlington Memorial sorry can't remember the trust name they were excellent and waved any charges as He faded so I can only commend their compassion.
        williewasp18 | 19 November 2010
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