Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Flip

1 2 ··· 12 13 14 ··· 19 20

Original poster

To not pay hospital parking fine

478 replies

StupidFine · 09/01/2018 08:19

Last week Dd (8 months) suffered an allergic reaction and was taken to the hospital. DH followed in the car and parked without paying (we live on the border and our usual hospital is in Scotland where parking is free, but this is our first emergency and we were taken to the nearest hospital which is in England). Either way the last thing on DH mind was the bleeding parking.

Thankfully Dd was ok, but a week later DH and I are reflecting on what to do about the parking fine. Our options as we see them are:

A) pay the fine and draw a line under this incident (£40).
B) contest the fine as it was an emergency and we have a hospital note with time and reason for admission (if contest is denied fine will go up to £80 as takes 35 days to review).
C) don't pay and just ignore the fine. A colleague of mine said as we live in Scotland we don't need to tell the parking company who was driving (apparently this loophole was closed in England) and since they don't know who was driving it's very costly/time consuming and not worth the company's effort to raise a case to claim the fine.

My head says to go for option A) as I don't want things like this hanging over our head. But my heart says option C) as it's ridiculous anyone should need to pay for parking at a hospital and the fine is just an arbitrary number pulled out of the company's backside (not quite but you get the point).

WWYD?

OP posts:

CherryMaDeara · 09/01/2018 18:36

He was visiting a patient. That isn't an emergency

He was following an ambulance taking his dd to hospital. People have died from allergic reactions. OP said it was their first emergency.

Give them a break.

Dungeondragon15 · 09/01/2018 18:37

Then read my post more carefully, dungeon. I said my first thought when packing the bag of things dd might need was to include coins for the carpark. She'd been stabilised by paramedics at home for some time at that point, whilst we waited for the ambulance.

I did read that but I still think it odd that it was your "first thought".

FitBitFanClub · 09/01/2018 18:38

What other thoughts would you have when thinking about what to put in a bag for a hospital dash, apart from.. oh yes! What to put in it.

FitBitFanClub · 09/01/2018 18:39

And now who's being pedantic?

TammySwansonTwo · 09/01/2018 18:39

Well I don't know about other people's hospitals but here the hospital car parks are owned by bloody private companies who keep hiking the prices and kicking out hardworking staff who then have to struggle to find roadside parking, so I don't go along with the argument of how much it makes the NHS in most cases.

Anyway, just pay it. When my twins were in nicu, one for 8 weeks, we mostly managed to park on the side of the road but still spent a fortune on the car park the rest of the time (£16 a day!)

Then one was readmitted for 11 days and I had to stay with him, different site where the car park was the only option. We spent over £160 on car park fees, only to be told when we were discharged that we could have gotten a subsidised weekly pass as he was an inpatient. Awesome. Hospital car parks make me sick!

CherryMaDeara · 09/01/2018 18:40

Wouldn't have occurred to me to enter A&E without paying first.

You must have been to hospital before for her anaphylaxis if you were calm enough to pack a bag?

It was OP and her husbands's first emergency. Do you really have no sympathy?

FitBitFanClub · 09/01/2018 18:42

Some hospitals do this. When dd was in GOSH a few years back, you could get free permits for parking in the surrounding roads. Unfortunately, we too didn't realise this for a day or two and spent a fortune on London meters/NCPs

LoniceraJaponica · 09/01/2018 18:42

"'I'd be considerably less narked about paying for hospital parking if it actually went to the NHS!"

But it does round here. That's why I don't object to paying.

Imaweeble · 09/01/2018 18:43

We had this happen a few years ago with DS2, he was rushed to hospital with suspected meningitis. When the fine came through I contested it and politely explained what had happened and that the last thing on our mind was getting a ticket and the company cancelled the fine. Just write to whoever issued it and explain the circumstances. Hope your little one is ok now.

FitBitFanClub · 09/01/2018 18:44

Actually, no, that was the first trip for that particular condition. The paramedics said she had to go in as soon as an ambulance could be scrambled and to get some things together. As I was going to be following the ambulance in the car (otherwise we'd be stuck there when discharged), it wasn't a great leap of foresight to grab some coins. And a mobile phone charger!

Dungeondragon15 · 09/01/2018 18:45

What other thoughts would you have when thinking about what to put in a bag for a hospital dash, apart from.. oh yes! What to put in it.

I would just be worried about DC. Maybe if you have had a "life time" of emergency visits with your DD it would be different but this was OP's first emergency and they understandably hospital parking charges weren't on their list of priorities.

CherryMaDeara · 09/01/2018 18:48

When the fine came through I contested it and politely explained what had happened and that the last thing on our mind was getting a ticket and the company cancelled the fine. Just write to whoever issued it and explain the circumstances. Hope your little one is ok now.

This is the generally the case Imaweeble

Crazy that parking companies have more compassion than alot of posters on this thread.

FitBitFanClub · 09/01/2018 18:48

I would just be worried about DC. There you go again, implying that somehow I cared less.
How helpful to your child is it to sit in a blind stupor and not even pull yourself together enough to think about what things they might need in a bag? Depending on their age, but a teddy, a change of clothes, milk/snacks/juice, book to read, ipad etc.. Oh, and coins/debit card for the car park and a vending machine. Or a taxi home.
None of that has anything to do with worry or concern for one's child. You can do both.

southboundagain · 09/01/2018 18:49

"Yes, but I think in hospitals it would be unfair to penalise someone in circumstances where omitting to pay is understandable because of an emergency as in this case."

I've only ever seen hospital car parks charge people on the way out. At that point it isn't an emergency any more.

CherryMaDeara · 09/01/2018 18:51

But you have been to A&E for her other conditions? So you have more experience than OP, who said it was their first emergency.

What do you think about Imaweeble's post above? Do you think she should have paid the fine?

CherryMaDeara · 09/01/2018 18:53

I've only ever seen hospital car parks charge people on the way out. At that point it isn't an emergency any more.

Had OP's hospital operated in the same way, there wouldn't be an issue would it? Her DH would have paid so there would be no fine.

One of my local hospitals is pay and display.

NewBallsPlease00 · 09/01/2018 18:53

Pay it and be grateful the facility is there...

Dungeondragon15 · 09/01/2018 18:55

I would just be worried about DC. There you go again, implying that somehow I cared less.

I'm not implying that you couldn't care less. I don't know what why your first thought was car parking charges but I do think it is an odd response. Maybe it's because you are used to rushing to hospital or maybe it was because you were in shock. Whatever the reason, I don't think it reasonable to expect other people's first thought to be car parking if their child is being rushed to hospital in an ambulance in a potentially life or death situation.

Dungeondragon15 · 09/01/2018 18:56

I would just be worried about DC. There you go again, implying that somehow I cared less.

FitBitFanClub · 09/01/2018 18:57

It's not about how many times we may or may not have been to A&E with our DC. It's about operating as a functioning adult in society, fgs!

I bet the OP's dh didn't forget to pick up his phone on his way out of the door. How many of us leave the house without a bag or purse? Not many, because it's ingrained in us, as adults, that we are likely to need money/cards/season tickets to get anything accomplished in life. And if you're not organised or experienced enough to know that, then frankly you take the consequences.

FitBitFanClub · 09/01/2018 18:58

And to keep harping on about "first thoughts," makes you the pedant, as it's a well-known turn of phrase.

He11y · 09/01/2018 19:00

Private parking companies will never get their act together and start acting within the law while muppets simply pay up no matter what. This thread is a shining example of such muppetry but that’s good for you OP, it means you will be able to appeal and save yourself £40 because I guarantee they won’t be acting within the law. People have advised you what to do - make sure you get it right and you won’t have to pay. Good luck.

FitBitFanClub · 09/01/2018 19:00

I mean, do you really think that, as dd was flat out on the bed, purple with hives and with a hugely-swollen tongue and lips and blood pressure through the floor, I was rummaging through drawers looking for 50 pence coins?

Skowvegas · 09/01/2018 19:04

If it's any consolation OP, last time we went to hospital with my daughter after using an epipen on her it cost me $1800.

If we'd taken an ambulance it would have been another $700.

FireCracker2 · 09/01/2018 19:04

I guess everybody in the carpark is themselves, or is visiting visiting someone who is sick or injured, and hence has a lot on their mind.

Flip

1 2 ··· 12 13 14 ··· 19 20

Swipe left for the next trending thread