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

[MrsLemonadeBrain]

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?

Can you not get a pay monthly parking permit? The hospital where I work is 25pcm for onsite (saved for shiftworkers and disabled workers as a first priority) or 15pcm for park and ride off site. Sounds like you're just paying a standard daily tariff?

Absolutely not no. Token fee maybe but 10-15 a day is taking the piss. I’m all for walking/biking to work but realistically many nhs staff work unsociable hours and arenon their feet all day. Car parking should be provided at a token cost.

If they are effectively taking the first hour and half each shift in parking fees, then I'd feel as though I wasn't being paid for that time. Give with one hand and take with the other.

Is that an hour and a half of pay before or after tax. If it's based on your gross hourly rate then parking will be more than your first hour and a half.

Would this take you (or other staff) below minimum wage, I wonder.

I get the idea of encouraging use of public transport but that level every day is an insult. Unless you are very lucky, then I bet that the bus times don't coincide with shift hours or aren't even feasible for outlying areas.

I sympathise but don’t see why it’s any different to anyone else. I work in a town centre in a building with no parking. People here either pay for parking at the nearest NCP or use public transport - I do the latter and it costs around £130 a month.

Every private sector job I've ever had has had free parking. Working at the hospital only job I've had to pay.

That’s ridiculously high.

DS2 has to pay for parking at the hospital when he’s on placement. I think it’s shocking he’s working for free as it is. He tries to ride his bike when he can but very often the weather won’t allow it.

I sympathise but don’t see why it’s any different to anyone else.

If staff are coming off shift at unsociable hours it may not be safe for them to walk to public transport or there may not be any public transport. NHS workers are essential (far more essential than me as a private sector bod!) I think they should get parking for a token fee or heavily reduced fee.

Can you put a bike or scooter in your boot and use that for the last bit?

Once went to EAU from my GP and ended up staying in the hospital for 5 weeks :/. I hd parked on the hospital car park. You can imagine my ticket . Fortunately they waived it. I was very grateful.

Thing is it's different in every NHS organisation. One place I worked parking was free, at another I paid £60 a month, at yet another it was variable based on band, at that one even consultants only paid £50 a month. It all makes a complete nonsense of national pay scales in England. Nobody pays at all in Scotland and Wales.

The hospital where I work is privately owned and the NHS rent it out. So the parking charges go to the private company. The other con with it is that the charges increase on the hour regardless of when you arrived, so if you come in at 10 minutes to, you are charged for a full hour 10 minutes later. Most visitors are unaware of that and watch the clock so they can leave before their hour is up and find they have been charged for 2 hours of parking. i don't think anyone should have to pay to park at a hospital, but then you get cheeky fuckers who go and park there for free all day while using the bus to get into the city centre. I do think there should be some sort of scheme for the people who work in the hospital to pay a nominal charge that isn't as extortionate as it currently is.

These posts always make me smile.
Public transport where I live is very sparse to say the least.
The main bus stops running at 5.20pm. The other bus runs once every 2 hours. Doesn't start until 8am. Everyone here has a car, everyone.

Every other worker has to pay for parking so why not NHS staff?

I don’t know whether people realise this, but many nhs nurses working days, starting at 7am and finishing at 7.30pm. It’s actually quite difficult to get public transport that will get you where you want to go and at the right time. If you have to drop children off anywhere on the way, then it’s even more difficult. Personally, I don’t really want the nurse who’s looking after me or a member of my family to have to spend 2 hours on various buses before s/he even starts work. I think it is a bit different to some other jobs, because a mistake due to tiredness could kill someone. I’m sure others will disagree though.

many nhs nurses working days, starting
at 7am and finishing at 7.30pm.

Well yes, that’s true. But the same in plenty of other professions where parking isn’t avaliable.

Which professions lottie? I didn’t realise that actually. Just interested to know!

No definitely not, it's an outrage nhs staff have parking charges to pay

Are you at RD&E OP? I left 11 years ago and parking was unaffordable eve back then. I commuted by coach an hour away. This worked really well but the coaches were replaced by double deckers which pretty much doubled the journey time. I work at my local hospital now and it’s £2.50 a day for staff. Used to be £0.50 but capacity was much smaller. Now it’s pretty easy to find space but 5x as much.

slowly I’ve worked in plenty of call centres and offices in the city centre with similar start / finish times. Other examples I can think of are fast food places, security, retail. Loads! As I posted earlier not being able to park for a reasonable cost is the reason why most people who work in a city centre have to rely on public transport.

I am a FE teacher and have to pay to park so now use public transport instead- it is seriously cheaper to buy a years bus pass than to park. It’s outrageous and no, they shouldn’t have to pay at all.

It's a lot! Our staff car park is £1.50 a day (also NHS) but there's rules on whether you can use the car park

I don't think anyone should have to pay to park in a staff car park.

No they shouldn't, but I also don't think anyone should have to pay to park at a hospital, it's the last thing anyone needs to be thinking about when you're going there, it's should just be monitored to ensure only hospital users/visitors are using the car park

My initial reaction was to say lots of people pay to park to get to work. Then I realised as a TA, I'd be outraged if the school charged me. Also, dh earns a high salary working for a well known multinational. They have tonnes of free parking and a shuttle bus to the train station. So, yes, I think NHS staff are getting a raw deal.

Don't you have a P&R scheme? Hospital DP works at does. You park for free and a shuttle bus takes you up to the hospital and back again when it's time to go home. There is even a shuttle bus between the two hospital sites (2 different towns about 15-20 miles apart).

Might be worth looking into as £15 out of what seems to be little more than the minimum wage is quite a lot. However, if you can afford it and are happy paying it, then it's no- one else's business.

Those that are saying retail workers have problems parking, it's not equatable as most public transport runs to town/city centres. Our hospital is out of town and would be 2 buses for me that would take 2hrs each way for a 13mile journey!