Hospital parking fees. What's the answer

[cadygal257]

Just watching morning news and it's a big topic this morning. I'm just not sure what the right answer is.
I spend a lot of time at three separate hospitals.

Hospital A- near a city centre, if they didn't charge for parking it would be full of people who work or shop nearby

Hospital b- similar issue but near a large town centre, so again would be full of people working in the nearest town

Hospital c. Could offer free parking as no big shops or business nearby

I suppose you could introduce a "verified parking system" but that's got to be paid for as well and who covers that's

I honestly think there is no easy answer to this and believe me I would highly benefit from free hospital parking, dread to think what I spend each month

Of the hospitals we use two require blue badges to be registered so their ANPR system knows the car is being used by a blue badge holder and the other you show your badge on exit. I think the showing badge on exit system is probably better but obviously more staff intensive.

Parking should be free for staff. I’ve also seen stories of medical staff getting fined when an operation for a patient ran over etc it’s awful.
We spoke to a nurse at our hospital who was considering quitting because the parking was so stressful. They often arrive to a full staff car park - which they have to pay for yearly and no refund if they don’t get a space. They would have to drive to a local road and pay for on street parking and then walk back. It’s terrible.

The thing is the BB goes with the person, not the car.

I have encountered BB parking which requires the car to be registered zero tax. But again that doesn't help when a car (taxi) is carrying someone who has a BB. And in a recent "proof we are run by idiots" discovery, it seems taxis are not exempt from Birminghams CAZ. Which has led to a shortage of accessible transport across the city. Which may have been the idea all along.

That’s why I prefer the show your badge system. It is a lot less open to abuse.

At Alder Hey you just show your badge at the exit and they automatically let you out, they used to have a system whereby you showed a photo of the badge at the parking desk and got a free token which I think personally was better still as they could verify it was the right person with the badge

That would be totally insufficient because they are frequently running pretty late with appointments.

I have been seen almost two hours after my appointment time on some occasions. It is fairly common. Also, appointments are not just 10 minute slots. Some of mine have taken up to an hour, plus probably starting late.

Personally, I think that my letter or email giving me an appointment should allow me to park for a very reduced rate. For free if possible, but I get that it wouldn't always be.

The hospital I usually go to has its own bus station and various stops throughout the site. All of the city's park and ride buses call there, so if time allows I do now use those.

I go to various hospitals a lot, as a patient. I always go by public transport. I’m not sure there even is a car park.

I have to pay to park at work? It costs about the same as public transport. As it should, they shouldn't incentivize driving.

Pay on exit. Machines in the hospital building not the car park.

NB: RBH your old payment system was better than the current one and you need a way bigger carpark anyway!!!

That’s not always an option for people though. Ds has a day procedure in a week, I have just checked at it would mean leaving the house at 5.30am to get there for 8.30 and then him having a complex trip back after his procedure.

or I can drive and we can be there in 20 minutes.

using public transport is fine when there is a decent network but in big chunks of the country that’s simply not the case

Would you? I honestly couldn't take a parking space from someone going to hospital- that's just the lowest.

The tried a photo system at this hospital. But chatting to the assistant, they started seeing several copies of one badge.

BB abuse is probably one of the offences (along with littering) that would be an exception to my otherwise anti death penalty views.

Welsh hospitals went free parking as a vote winner. It’s fucking shit trying to take relatives to appointments. The 50p or £1 a day was reasonable and if you had a child/had gone to A&E and got admitted the fees got waved.

But that money was spend on traffic wardens and now it has to come out of another pot. There is no money for the upkeep of the carpark and as there isn’t enough parking now staff can park at the hospital (rightly) and no patients can get there. Also seeing as most hospitals were built before seemingly cars existed. They just need to build multi stories or hospitals out of towns. It’s easier to pay to get a taxi a long distance if you actually want to be able to go into an appointment with someone her than drop them off and drive around.

It’s free in Wales, but if anything it’s just created a new problem. People see it as a green light to spend all day at the hospital. You have to arrive an hour early for your appointment just to try and get a space. My nearest hospital has an enormous car park but it’s constantly packed to the brim with cars all wedged in on double yellows as well. It’s a nightmare. I agree that hospital parking is extortinate in places, but free for all parking isn’t the answer either.

Very early on, a very wise (sales) manager told me to always be careful of "free" as it will be equated with "of no value" and treated accordingly

Noting in the intervening 30 years has persuaded me they weren't right.

We all love the NHS. But look how we treat it.

I’d get a taxi in those circumstances

Love the idea of getting public transport😂

All the buses in our city have been cut by a third at the minimum. It would take hours to get to the hospital at the other side of the city.

But why only parking? Why not also charge people to use the toilets inside, or to sit in a chair in the waiting room, or a contribution towards the lighting and heating that they'd otherwise be paying for at home - anything that isn't technically strictly necessary medical care?

This just makes me think of when the government justify tax increases by talking of expenditure in terms of nurses, teachers and services for vulnerable people; but they never seem to think to mention the great many things that taxes get spent on that a lot of people strongly disagree are essential - like HS2, Trident, endless 'diversity' celebrations and such.

There's always talk of 'encouraging' people to use public transport - even when it simply does not exist at the times when staff have to be there for unsocial hours shifts, or indeed at all. It's also discriminatory against disabled people and those with long-term conditions, who have fewer options to use whatever public transport there may be or to walk - as well as often having to attend significantly more appointments than able-bodied people; not to mention misogynistic when expecting female staff to make journeys that seriously compromise their safety.

The excuse that 'shoppers and everybody else will use the parking if it's free' is pathetic and demonstrably false, too. There are a number of simple ways that you can validate/ensure somebody's right to park there, with absolutely no need for money to have to change hands.

What happens with hospitals that are in town or city centres? Do they not get filled up with people going shopping and other workers?

I’ve never lived anywhere with hospitals in city centres.

They are usually on the outskirts of the centre or miles out.

This is exactly what had happened at ours (not wales)

I'll repeat my comment that accessible taxis have become thin on the ground in Brum thanks to the Clean Air Zone. Admittedly a local problem for local people, but then this thread is pretty much filling up with local apsects of a national issue.

My local sort of hospital (where I went for community midwife appointments) had a “put your number plate in” to not be charged system. It worked well. But it was a small hospital (no a&e) just community type services.

The main hospital on the city was paid for parking but most of the time it is impossible to even find a space!!

Which would cost £50 at least. Not a feasible option for most who have regular hospital appointments.

Free of charge doesn't have to equal chaotic free-for-all.

It's very easy to restrict use to the rightful people without having to rely on the crude method of pricing out those who can avoid having to be there. It's pure and simple a money-making scheme, whether they admit it or not.

Parking should be free for staff.

I don’t mind paying as a patient, the bigger issue is getting a space in the first place.