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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

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 · 10/01/2018 12:27

Rebecca

MN don't police every thread. They delete a post when someone reports it and it's against Talk guidelines. OP reported your post this morning.

Rebeccaslicker · 10/01/2018 12:31

Yes cherry, I can read, thank you. The question is, why was her post deleted (first, according to her; i must say I only noticed both were gone when I scrolled up earlier, so will take her word for that). Because someone found it offensive enough to report, and HQ must have agreed, despite your saying repeatedly that she did nothing wrong whereas I am "vile" . That someone wasn't me; I replied to her openly, not going behind her back to report her.

CherryMaDeara · 10/01/2018 12:42

Yes cherry, I can read, thank you. The question is, why was her post deleted (first, according to her; i must say I only noticed both were gone when I scrolled up earlier, so will take her word for that).

Probably one of the people who have been quite rude to OP?

ImAMarshmellow · 10/01/2018 12:54

Personally I would pay.

If you can afford to contest/ignore and potentially cause further fees then ignore it, but don't be surprised when you end up with a bigger bill.

I don't think contesting it will make any difference. The majority of people attending a&e are their for an emergency of some sort, I can't imagine you would get anywhere with them. If your daughter was in the car with your partner that's one thing, but she was transferred via ambulance. Your partner could have paid once you were waiting to be seen or discharged. I'm speaking as someone who has also had a young child (5 months) rushed straight to hospital after an allergic reaction.

WitchesHatRim · 10/01/2018 13:00

MN don't police every thread. They delete a post when someone reports it and it's against Talk guidelines. OP reported your post this morning.

You seem to know a lot about the OP. Hmm

CherryMaDeara · 10/01/2018 13:09

WitchesHatRim

No, but OP said in her earlier post that she reported Rebecca's post this morning.

You seem to be very pally with Rebecca.

StupidFine · 10/01/2018 13:09

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

BashStreetKid · 10/01/2018 13:15

OP's usual hospital has free parking so why would they think of needing change for the car park? If you've never been before you don't know.

My usual supermarket has free parking, but I'm capable of working out that I need to check the situation when I visit another one. In my experience hospital car parks have loads of signs pointing out the charges. I fully accept that when OP's husband first turned up he was probably thinking of nothing other than getting in to see how his child was, but the likelihood is that she was stabilised and treated quickly and it doesn't seem to have occurred to him at any point to go back and check.

Original poster
StupidFine · 10/01/2018 13:15

No, but OP said in her earlier post that she reported Rebecca's post this morning.

Exactly. Witches Hmm Maybe trying reading the whole thread instead of embarrassing yourself with failed attempts at being witty? Just some useful advise you might want to consider.

OP posts:
BashStreetKid · 10/01/2018 13:18

RockinHippy, which poster on this thread has said that they would put change for parking above getting medical help for DC? I can't remember seeing any post that said that.

WitchesHatRim · 10/01/2018 13:25

Just some useful advise you might want to consider.

Sarcasm is the lowest form of witt.

I'm out anyway.

This thread is ridiculous.

BashStreetKid · 10/01/2018 13:28

Our DD wasn't 'sorted out' by 14:30, she had received initial treatment but was showing signs of secondary reaction.

I meant sorted out in the sense of the original emergency having been dealt with. Clearly she was sorted out enough for you to have started thinking about getting shopping done.

arethereanyleftatall · 10/01/2018 14:14

Rockinhippy.
People aren't saying they would put getting a car park ticket above checking their baby is ok.
They are saying if you then get a parking charge in such circumstances, you suck it up, and think of it as completely minor compared to the health of your little one. Especially if the money goes to the hospital who's just saved your baby.

CherryMaDeara · 10/01/2018 14:26

arethere

Well actually they are. FitButFun says Imweebles and her husband should have taken the time to buy a parking ticket before taking their baby with suspected meningitis into hospital.

Dungeondragon15 · 10/01/2018 14:34

People aren't saying they would put getting a car park ticket above checking their baby is ok.

Some posters have stated that they would have stopped and paid for parking rather than rushed straight into A&E to see their child. If you don't think that anyone would do that why do you think OP shouldn't appeal the fine? After all, if you do something any reasonable person would why should you be punished?

They are saying if you then get a parking charge in such circumstances, you suck it up, and think of it as completely minor compared to the health of your little one. Especially if the money goes to the hospital who's just saved your baby.

Why should people suck it up when there is the option to appeal though? I don't think that the money does always go to the hospital. Often the fines are administered by an outside company.

arethereanyleftatall · 10/01/2018 14:44

A quick Google has just indicated that the NHS does get money from many parking fines.
Also, Carlisle hospital parking is run by UKPC.

Dungeondragon15 · 10/01/2018 15:29

A quick Google has just indicated that the NHS does get money from many parking fines.

I haven't seen anything stating that the NHS receive money from the fines only the charges. In the case of Carlise they are being administered by a private company and as they do not charge the NHS for this service, no doubt they make their profits from the fines themselves. i.e. any fine paid by OP will probably go to UKPC rather than the NHS.

Anyway, it's easy to appeal (I have done this in the past successfully as my employer uses this company)

www.ukpcappeals.co.uk/

arethereanyleftatall · 10/01/2018 15:56

Dungeon - are you sure the NHS don't get money from ukpc? I couldn't find anything online either way, but am really interested. If the car parks once belonged to NHS, they must pay rent or something. Did we ever not have to pay parking for NHS hospitals, I can't remember?
I would have thought it in ukpc interest to be visibly donating to the hospital; I'm fairly sure less people would appeal if NHS received a commission.

Rebeccaslicker · 10/01/2018 16:09

This seems to suggest that this particular trust gets 40% of the total revenue for the staff parking, but the remainder goes to the PFI that runs the hospital. Admittedly it's an old link so things might have changed:

www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/latest/Hospital-PFI-firm-gets-car-park-cash-bfab4562-33a8-44c4-b070-cb4b409dd45f-ds

The reason given for introducing charges is that people were abusing the spaces so others couldn't park there.

It's different for every trust - some will get the money (like Chelsea and Westminster); others won't. But overall parking charges net the NHS trusts who do pocket the money over £130m a year. To see why Carlisle's goes to the PFI partner you'd need to see the PFI contract, I guess.

I think a fine will always be collected by the enforcement company. The purpose of it is to deter and punish bad parking. The fact that it's a private company collecting it isn't a good reason to think you don't have to pay it. Good reasons include things like the signage not being visible or legible; no meters working; etc.

Iwantamarshmallow · 10/01/2018 16:10

it’s a hospital. They probably get a 1001 appeal letters a day with the same reasons. I doubt they would take this into consideration eveyones in the same boat .. just pay the ticket

Dungeondragon15 · 10/01/2018 16:11

I'm not saying the NHS don't get money from car parking charges. I'm talking about the fines for those people without a ticket. If these are administered by UKPC and UKPC are not charging the NHS they must be making money from the fines themselves otherwise how are they making a profit? I don't think that they need to "visibly donate" to the NHS. Most people just assume the NHS receives the money from fines and/or don't think to appeal anyway as evidenced by this thread.

Rebeccaslicker · 10/01/2018 16:18

No, dungeon - we just own up to our mistakes when we make them! That's the bit you seem to keep on missing.

It's unfortunate here that it was pay and display; a system where you pay as you leave makes far more sense for the visitor. But the articles quoting the trust say that the system was put in place precisely because of poor parking at the hospital, so that's presumably why they went for something that's meant to be a deterrent.

Dungeondragon15 · 10/01/2018 16:23

No, dungeon - we just own up to our mistakes when we make them! That's the bit you seem to keep on missing.

So you don't think that that there is plenty of evidence on this thread that people assume that the NHS will receive the money from any fine paid by OP and that appealing will be of no use.Hmm

Rebeccaslicker · 10/01/2018 16:32

Nope. You really do read into it what you want to, don't you?!

People were mostly saying that the fine was incurred by mistake but that it was the OP's mistake and therefore she should own up to it. Some said she should challenge it.

She then started going on about free parking and taxes in Scotland and it being "healthy" to challenge companies who "pluck figures out of their ass" (nothing was provided to justify why she thinks £40 is unreasonable in itself, despite the fact that it's significantly lower than penalties in other parts of England; however it's pretty clear from her name change to "StupidFine" that she didn't have a genuine AIBU in the first place; she just wanted tips on how to appeal a fine!)

She was then told that she could appeal it. Some people think she should; others say that everyone parking there will have the same excuse and she should just suck it up.

Ultimately though, not one opinion on this thread matters a damn. The only person whose opinion counts is the person in charge of appeals!

Dungeondragon15 · 10/01/2018 17:32

People were mostly saying that the fine was incurred by mistake but that it was the OP's mistake and therefore she should own up to it. Some said she should challenge it.

You are the one reading into things. I said that most people would assume that the NHS receives the money from fines and/or don't think to appeal anyway because plenty of people have suggested that on this thread. I didn't state that was the reason they thought OP should pay the fine.

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