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Original poster

Do you think NHS staff should have to pay £10-15 a day for parking?

184 replies

MrsLemonadeBrain · 11/04/2018 13:56

I work in the hospital and parking is probably an hour and a half’s wage (maybe more) for a shifts parking (it goes up to 18 quid if you’re on a long)
This has always been fine by me. But the last three days when I’ve been leaving work and paying for my parking (pay on exit type jobby) several people have been outraged about the cost of my parking and feel like they need to spend 10 minutes telling me how outrageous it is!
What is the general opinion on this?
Should I be as outraged as all these patients suggest?

OP posts:
HappyFeet1212 · 11/04/2018 14:26

The pay scales differ enormously in the NHS.

If staff are required to pay for parking, it should be as a % of pay in order to make it fair. Why should nurses on £25k have to pay the same as consultants on £100k+

Many public services structure payment for car parking in this way in order to make it fair.

PistFump · 11/04/2018 14:26

I think paying to park is reasonable and fair (afterall there are lots of people who do public service jobs that have to pay to park at or near work outside of the NHS) but this thread highlights that nobody should be paying that sort of money to park in a hospital car park - patients or staff. I think £5 per day would be an adequate charge.

Babyroobs · 11/04/2018 14:27

I should also add that at this particular NHS hospital the ticket machines and barriers are frequently broken and sometimes I have to queue for ten minutes just to pay and then another ten minutes to get out of the car park, adding an extra 20 mins onto my commute ! It's scandalous to pay so much for an incompetent parking system. I work with cancer patients who are also totally shocked at the parking prices - sometimes they are down to statutory sick pay and have to have daily treatments costing a fortune. I think you can only claim back the cost if on certain benefits.

Didntcomeheretofuckspiders · 11/04/2018 14:29

I actually think that’s fairly disgusting yes. It’s less than £1.50 per day at my hospital for staff!

jimijack · 11/04/2018 14:29

I strongly and strenuously object to paying to park at work, so I park a mile away and walk in. Trouble is, the council's have made most of the surrounding area resident permit parking only.

Put my head phones on and March into work each shift, some days after a 12-14 hour shift my feet are absolutely killing me so it's a struggle, but I refuse to pat to go to work.

BuntyII · 11/04/2018 14:31

YANBU - you should not have to pay either to park or to go to hospital.

IntoTheFloodAgain · 11/04/2018 14:33

I don’t think it’s outrageous to pay for parking but I think the amount you pay is ridiculous. I used to moan when I had to pay £4 a day (but my old work had their own car park, it was just reserved for certain staff)

If you don’t mind it then that’s fair enough, but if it was me and I had an option, I wouldn’t work somewhere that cost me that much to park!

Becles · 11/04/2018 14:34

My sister pays £85 a month to park at her hospital and there's no guarantee of a space nearly half the time.

DairyisClosed · 11/04/2018 14:35

It depends on whether you have the option of commuting by public transportation. If so then fair game I say but if not then you should be offered staff parking permits or something.

Mrscog · 11/04/2018 14:36

I think paying to park at work is ok but no more than £3 per day. £10-15 per day is ridiculous.

WaxOnFeckOff · 11/04/2018 14:37

Lots of people in low paid jobs have to pay a lot for their travel to work and parking. It's not specific to the NHS. Having said that, I think that rate is exploitative and I would presume its a PPP Hospital? Usually built on the outskirts of town to benefit from cheap land and without a decent infrastructure of public transport for shift workers. Staff get forced into taking a car and there are usually limited other safe/legal places to park.

Lets face it, the long stay rates are really aimed at staff. Visitors or those attending appointments will face lower charges. It probably really only applies to those who've travelled by car with someone in labour or someone in a severe incident or in the last stages of life that will have public parking there for long stays. All exploitative.

Hillarious · 11/04/2018 14:38

Better public transport all round would help. Londoners often don't appreciate just how lucky they are on that front.

Prettylovely · 11/04/2018 14:38

Absolutely not! Thats really expensive!

RidingWindhorses · 11/04/2018 14:38

Is the parking outsourced to a private company?

Emmasmum2013 · 11/04/2018 14:38

I think there needs to be some regulation on it. There are wildly different charges for NHS staff to park at work. I must say though £10 a day is one of the highest I've ever heard of. Our staff car parking (NHS again) is about £20 a month and comes out of salary sacrifice. Even patients and visitors can buy a weekly ticket for about £15 if they have to come in regularly over the week.

While I do understand that the money is needed to maintain the car parks and to pay the security staff, it would be nice if there were some standard company that the government contracts to do all the car parks and they all charge the same thing.

Waitedtoolong · 11/04/2018 14:39

Not a Park & Ride you can use OP?

MrsTylerJoseph · 11/04/2018 14:40

That’s very high.

I pay £18 a month to park at the hospital I worked at. No public transport which will get you to work early enough or that leaves after a late shift.....no other parking nearby so no other choice really.

MrsTylerJoseph · 11/04/2018 14:42

Normally the expensive all day rate is high on purpose to stop people using it as an all day car park while they go shopping or work nearby. But there should be discount for staff.

turnaroundbrighteyes · 11/04/2018 14:43

I think it depends on how much parking there is.

If it's like every hospital I've ever been to as a patient / visitor where it's very hard to find a very expensive space. Then I think it's fair enough to charge high rates to staff who are able bodied enough to use public transport / park and walk / cycle to dissuade them from using spaces that could otherwise be used for patients.

If there is excess parking or unsociable hours when it's quieter then yes, unreasonable to charge so much.

penguinsandpanda · 11/04/2018 14:44

I don't think you should be paying for a carpark at your work and certainly not those sorts of amounts.

Kazzyhoward · 11/04/2018 14:48

I would presume its a PPP Hospital? Usually built on the outskirts of town to benefit from cheap land and without a decent infrastructure of public transport for shift workers. Staff get forced into taking a car and there are usually limited other safe/legal places to park.

That's a lot of assumptions.

Orangesox · 11/04/2018 14:50

I think it’s immoral if I’m honest. I refuse to work anywhere that I have to pay, or worse, park somewhere that’s a risky spot for a lone woman to be walking around before sunrise and after sunset.

In my time as a hospital based occupational health nurse I worked in an inner city hospital in an area with a high crime rate. Waiting list for a staff permit was first come first served... the 8 months I worked there I never got a permit. In that 8 months I was followed to my car on a number of occasions (and made great friends with the local shop keeper who I regularly had to go in for a chat with to avoid being followed any further). I had two wing mirrors smashed off and ketchup smeared all over my windscreen because someone didn’t like us parking on their street. I got screamed at and abused by people wanting to park on the road to avoid paying the visitor parking charges. Ironic really. If I could’ve got there via public transport I would have... sadly the 50kgs of equipment that I carry around for my role would’ve been somewhat difficult to manoeuvre on the bus!

Tansie1 · 11/04/2018 14:51

That's outrageous!

I don't have a issue about paying to park, it's the amount! I think £3 a day would be acceptable.

I am a Band 6 HCP, and we used to have to pay £30 pcm to park on site, but due to their being no spaces left by 9am I pay someone to park on their driveway 5 mins walk away.

We merged with another Trust who gave their staff free parking so they had to give that to us as well, but they made unsocial hours 'before 0700 and after 2200' ('they' being 0900-1700 managers...) so you have to use a park and ride if you work within those hours. The PnR is free to hospital staff but using it adds an additional hour to your day compared to parking on-site.

We are struggling to recruit Band 2 and 3 staff as the city is already far too expensive for anyone other than the doctors to live in so people are already commuting 7-15 miles a day; so it just isn't worthwhile for a Band 2-3 to have to leave home a minimum of half an hour earlier every day, and get home half an hour later.

And I always tell our students to ask about parking when looking at jobs!

Grassyass · 11/04/2018 14:51

I used to work in a hospital. At first we were able to pay a monthly fee for parking but then parking was reserved for doctors only and everyone else had to use a park and ride miles away which added an hour's travel to the working day. There was no street parking foe miles and there is no public transport where I live.
Having said all that I can accept that those saving lives are more important than lowly admin staff but not overpaid chief execs

Iamagreyhoundhearmeroar · 11/04/2018 14:51

It's shocking.

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