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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:
BarbarianMum · 09/01/2018 11:33

When you are following an ambulance carrying your dangerously ill child you are, ime, I stop away from utter panic and your priority is reaching your child's bedside, not faddling around to get a parking ticket. Try it sometime and see. Hmm

Oblomov18 · 09/01/2018 11:38

I can't see what grounds you have to appeal.

Rebeccaslicker · 09/01/2018 11:39

Ok dungeon - but at the moment, as shown by links posted on this thread, many trusts do make a lot of money from it. So, how would you replenish that? See the criticism of corbyn and his ropey maths when he proposed abolishing it for more details!!

FreudianSlurp · 09/01/2018 11:41

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Bluelady · 09/01/2018 11:43

Just pay like everyone in a similar situation has to.

viques · 09/01/2018 11:45

I do sympathise with your husband parking quickly and rushing into the hospital to be with you and your sick child. I understand that paying for parking was the last thing on his mind in such an emergency situation.

BUT. When your daughter had been seen, treated, and was deemed well enough to go home (I am assuming this as you do not mention that she was admitted to a ward for further treatment and or observation) then presumably you, your husband and daughter all returned to the car park to go home.

It was then that you both should have realised that you needed to do something about the parking charges . You have been sent a fine because you made no attempt to pay the car parking fee, which was probably a lot less than £40.

Your daughter had an emergency ambulance,paramedic and medical care which possibly saved her life. Putting a few quid in a parking meter is literally small change, moaning about a parking fine that you have incurred legitimately sounds petty.

TheFairyCaravan · 09/01/2018 11:47

Are you actually a parent confused if so it doesn't sound like you have ever been in that situation, if you had, then you would know just how dumb this statement is

Yes I’m a parent. Yes I’ve had a child admitted to hospital by ambulance. I have had 2 children in 2 different hospital simultaneously while DH has been deployed, too. And gues what? Never once have we not paid a parking fee.

Dungeondragon15 · 09/01/2018 11:47

But the person didn't go to the hospital as an emergency with an 8 month old.

Again, if parent is following an ambulance because their eight month old child needs emergency treatment in a potentially life or death situation most parents would see it as an emergency for them to follow their child into A&E. This may not effect the outcome for the child but to actually want the parent to be fined in this situation seems non-empathic to say the least.

Dungeondragon15 · 09/01/2018 11:53

Ok dungeon - but at the moment, as shown by links posted on this thread, many trusts do make a lot of money from it. So, how would you replenish that? See the criticism of corbyn and his ropey maths when he proposed abolishing it for more details!!

More money from taxes and less waste of money by constantly rearranging and reorganising the NHS (which often involves making highly people redundant only to employ them again a month or two later.) Charging sick and often vulnerable people huge fees for parking is not the way to do it.

Rebeccaslicker · 09/01/2018 11:57

But that would take years. You're talking about a massive overhaul. And persuading the public to swallow higher taxes.

I don't disagree those sort of long term measures are needed. But in the short term, you'd immediately cut off £130,000,000 from many trusts. How do you propose to deal with that?

BashStreetKid · 09/01/2018 11:58

When you are following an ambulance carrying your dangerously ill child you are, ime, I stop away from utter panic and your priority is reaching your child's bedside, not faddling around to get a parking ticket

Sure. But you then reach a point when the immediate urgency is over and you're waiting around for treatment to work, prescriptions, your child to get signed out, etc. And at the point you leave it with your successfully treated child, it definitely isn't an emergency.

Rebeccaslicker · 09/01/2018 12:00

What IS wrong is non hospital visitors using the car parks. You try and park at Chelsea & Westminster on a home match day for Chelsea FC....! Who would think that was ok?

Loads of people, it seems Angry

Dungeondragon15 · 09/01/2018 12:02

Plus, of course, they would rightly point out that OP's husband had more than enough time to stop and check the position when they left, and indeed beforehand: as soon as he could see the child was being treated and responding to treatment there was no longer any emergency.

How do you know what they would point out or say. My guess is that hospitals are a bit more empathic than you are about this kind of situation and they may not think it reasonable to expect a parent to spend time walking around a park car, reading signs or paying and displaying in this circumstance.

However you think the NHS should be funded, Dungeon, we need to deal with the system as it is. Lying to get out of a parking charge when you've just had hundreds of pounds worth of life-saving treatment is deeply attractive, is it?

I think that wanting someone to paying a parking fine because they were too panicked to "take the time" to walk around a car park reading signs and buying tickets in situation such as this is more unattractive actually.

BashStreetKid · 09/01/2018 12:03

Dungeon, I wasn't questioning that this was an emergency for the father. What I was questioning was your suggestion that he should lie and say he was with the child. He wasn't.

And no, I don't want him to be fined for that. I, like most people on here, want him to have paid the parking charge once the emergency was over.

Dungeondragon15 · 09/01/2018 12:04

Sure. But you then reach a point when the immediate urgency is over and you're waiting around for treatment to work, prescriptions, your child to get signed out, etc. And at the point you leave it with your successfully treated child, it definitely isn't an emergency.

I presume that the OP already had already been fined by then so too late to do anything but appeal.

BashStreetKid · 09/01/2018 12:05

Dungeon, why would the father be in a panic when he went back to the car?

Dungeondragon15 · 09/01/2018 12:05

Dungeon, I wasn't questioning that this was an emergency for the father. What I was questioning was your suggestion that he should lie and say he was with the child. He wasn't.

No he shouldn't specifically state that he was with the child. He doesn't have to state that he wasn't though,

Rebeccaslicker · 09/01/2018 12:06

Not necessarily. Depends if it was prepay or pay on leaving. Eg I went to see a friend in macc hospital recently. You pay by phone up to midnight the following day. Quite hard to justify not paying there. Chelsea you pay on exiting the car park or you can't get out!

BashStreetKid · 09/01/2018 12:08

I presume that the OP already had already been fined by then so too late to do anything but appeal.

As you have pointed out, we don't know the circumstances. But if, for instance, it was a a pay and display, he could have gone back in and sorted it out with the hospital.

BashStreetKid · 09/01/2018 12:08

No he shouldn't specifically state that he was with the child. He doesn't have to state that he wasn't though

Still a lie, and one that can very easily be disproved.

JaneEyre70 · 09/01/2018 12:10

You got free healthcare, but couldn't be arsed to pay for the car park and got a fine. But you don't think you should have to pay even though it goes back into the NHS trust that provided your free care? Your conscience, not mine Hmm but I wouldn't even question it for a millisecond.

Sallystyle · 09/01/2018 12:12

They now charge £3.00 minimum at my hospital (under 30 minutes is still free I think) which I think is pretty bloody steep.

It's impossible to get out of the car park without paying.

You should pay. I had to pay when I worked there.

Dungeondragon15 · 09/01/2018 12:18

Still a lie, and one that can very easily be disproved.

No it wouldn't be a lie at all.

Dungeondragon15 · 09/01/2018 12:20

As you have pointed out, we don't know the circumstances. But if, for instance, it was a a pay and display, he could have gone back in and sorted it out with the hospital.

If a fine has been given for not paying and displaying you need to appeal by whatever procedure is indicated on the ticket.

mirime · 09/01/2018 12:22

@AnathemaPulsifer

From link above: ‘In Scotland, patients’ associations have complained that car parks at many hospitals, made free in 2008, are so permanently full that some people have had to leave their vehicle a 15-minute walk away – thus missing appointments.

The obvious solution is to do what some shopping centres do and anyone parking who isn't visiting the hospital pays a large fee, those who are parking there legitimately get their ticket validated and don't pay.