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

I think it's reasonable to expect to pay for parking when visiting a hospital, so long as charges are in line with other car parks locally. However there needs some sort of 'season ticket' arrangement to be available for people with regular appointments or visiting patients who are staying for a long time.

Without parking charges, money to maintain the carpark, security, etc would have to come out of funds that could otherwise be used for patient care.

So true. Dh and I actually paid approx £70 on train fares recently as we both needed to be there for an important appointment for our child and we couldn't risk not being able to park, So it not only cost a small fortune the whole thing took most the day as well

There is no viable public transport from where I live to any of the hospitals in my area, and given that a lot of patients need door to door transport that wouldn't work either.

I'm all for free parking at hospitals AND shops! build more carparks where people want to park, make them all free. That and improving public transport so people have a genuinely affordable alternative to driving. Public services should serve the public, not be profit driven.

Our hospital covers a massive area for many conditions. They have put a train stop in but it’s a walk, limited trains etc. The buses that go past go through all the villages from some places and take hours.
The site is horrendous and full of people parking on double red lines, it’s impossible to move around. There’s signs everywhere telling people not to arrive early.

Things that would help where I am - a more efficient and supervised pick up zone, you are basically forced to park to pick someone up because people have dumped cars in those spaces. The car park is empty at the weekends, and there is a move to some weekend clinics. You should be able to get some prescriptions off site or sent to a pharmacy rather than sitting waiting for hours or coming back another day.
Some clinics have moved to the small hospitals in other towns one day a month to stop people having to travel (it’s over an hour by a country bus, 20 minutes by car).

When we can we park 15-20 minutes away outside a friends house and walk if the weather is okay.

Yes, but that is Somebody Elses Problem. As is the way in modern life where everything exists in a vacuum and nothing is considered in the whole.

Hospitals are places where people who are unwell go to.

There are probably the people who will struggle the most with public transport!
From the length of the journey to difficulties with walking, access issues (if you use a wheelchair or know someone who does, you’ll know) to the fact you probably don’t want to be in a bus after you’ve just been told you’ve lost a pregnancy or need cancer treatment.

It’s not that the consultants ‘won’t see patients in the local hospitals’ though, is it?
it’s that the local hospitals have not employed consultants to do this.

Well having to pay works well when you’re working.
Not so well when you’re chronically ill and survive on disability benefits….

At our local hospital group you can get a form which gives free parking which covers you for several months if you have to attend regularly for treatment, eg. Dialysis, chemo. It's worth enquiring at the hospital enquiry desk - we found ward staff didn't always know of such schemes.

Not the ones I attend (in two major cities).

One hospital the parking is problematic but it’s a major hospital with a centre of excellence attached, so just busy.

There is a discount for that at our hospital. It’s not free and only for a week at a time.
And you’re right, it’s not widely advertised…..

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nhs-patient-visitor-and-staff-car-parking-principles/nhs-patient-visitor-and-staff-car-parking-principles

parking should be free from those who have regular treatment as well as blue badge holders.

I get that must be really tough but i think it’s realistic for anyone who owns a car to expect to have to pay to park it. Or is that unreasonable?

There are wards who often give some free parking for a few hours/a day etc for certain situations like giving birth.

I thought hospitals couldn't make a profit on what they charge. There's one near me - London. It's always full. But the parking is more expensive than parking on the street, and I don't get the impression that many non hospital related people are parking there. If you need to go a lot (like if having chemo or something, or when my daughter was there for several days), they give you a voucher so you don't pay.
If it was free I can see people taking advantage, but it can't be as it needs to pay for itself. I also think it's a hard hearted person who would park at a busy hospital lot knowing they are making it harder for patients and visitors.

Without parking charges, money to maintain the carpark, security, etc would have to come out of funds that could otherwise be used for patient care.

They could charge for using the toilets, or charge patients for their food, or charge you for the printing and/or postage of each letter they need to send you. They don't, of course, because these are essential parts of running a hospital - just as providing car parking is. Nobody is under the impression that hospitals are cheap to run.

The NHS liberally wastes so many millions of pounds in so many ways, but that's always ignored when it comes to citing stretched budgets - so much easier to just blame people (including disabled, elderly and vulnerable folk) who have no option but to attend using a car.

We all know that cars are far from cheap, but for some people, they aren't just a convenience; they absolutely are a lifeline.

In France they have a separate employee car park which is free and then a patient / visitors car park which you have to pay for but it's not extortionate

We are fiercely agreeing. Remember we are the weirdoes here. Most people are quite happy with limited public transport and a society where the car is hated and simultaneously mandated for participation in modern life. Who are we to disagree ?

Parking at ours was once free, but it’s close to the railway station (25 mins to central London) so that soon stopped.

Trying to park there is always a major PITA, even with a blue badge - I used to drive people to appts. and more than once just had to drop some doddery old person at the entrance - when really they should have had someone with them.

I’m just v thankful that for us, it’s walking distance - especially for dh, who nobly came twice a day when I was in for 3 weeks last year. Not that such matters ever occurred to us when we bought the house 30+ years ago.

AFAIK there is a large staff car park in a separate area.

When they moved our hospital services They promised us dedicated public transport

Which they stopped

We also had park and ride

They stopped that too

It's out of area out of town you can't walk to it from a housing estate or anywhere local its literally in the middle of nowhere and they sting us for parking

I'm really conflicted about it.

on one hand we absolutely should promote active/public transport and reduce dependency on private cars.
on the other hand currently the burden on staff and patients is too high to pay for and find appropriate transport.

parking, imo, should never be free.

The answer is that if you can afford to run a car, then you should also factor in the cost of parking for everywhere you go.
Or use public transport.

on one hand we absolutely should promote active/public transport and reduce dependency on private cars.

Well you'd think. But given how much industry has been built up around the manufacture, sale and repairs of private motor vehicles, you won't be very popular in the tax take stakes. And that's before you throw in the power of "the lobby".

My hospital has free parking, though I am in Scotland so it’s maybe that, it’s multistorey . There’s also a staff car park and you need a permit for that but I don’t know if they need to pay. The staff also have been relatively recently allowed to park on the top few levels of the multi-storey. The staff car park is not huge and it’s quite a big hospital.