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?

I do think that the employees should be paid a premium according to the hours they work,ie: up to working 4 hrs pay a reduced rate and 4--8hrs half the going rate and over 8hrs should be free to all medical staff this should also include Ambulance staff as well,night workers should be free at all times imo.

Get the bus, cycle, walk, care share.

That's ok if you live and work in an urban area, but in rural areas that's not really an option. Walking and even cycling requires you to live relatively close to where you work.

DP recently turned down a (non-medical) job at a hospital because he would have had to pay £60 a month to park, even for a permit to park his motorbike.

We live on the edge of a town and the hospital is on the edge of a town 16 miles away. There are about 4 buses a day between here and there and the fare is over £10 return, the train was even more expensive and the walk to/from the station would be 2 miles at this end and 1.5 at the other. At 58, he didn't fancy cycling 32 miles a day, on fast but unlit rural roads, in all weathers. And I think that's entirely reasonable.

Yy lottie I see what you mean. I used to work in a city centre call centre. However it was easy to get to my train because it was in a city centre. Also different walking to the train at night after dark because there were loads of people about. Perhaps ok for those nurses who work in a city centre hospital, but many are not in those kinds of locations, unfortunately.

I used to be an NHS nurse. We were told we should be using public transport. The buses to where I lived were non-existent after 9pm, Sundays and bank hols. I paid £15 a week for car parking.

The NHS is being run on the good will of staff. It’s a crap place to work, no wonder so many are leaving - not just nurses but clerical staff (the lower bands who earn just over the minimum wage and could earn more working retail with staff discounts, allied healthcare professionals etc.

It was the final straw for me. I left the NHS and nursing. Far less stress and in a job that pays more PLUS I’m £60 a month better off!

When they drop / reduce unsocial hours payments, even more staff will leave.

No fucking way. It’s disgusting.

The car parks aren’t even safe, hospital where I used to work had no CCTV and no security and you had to pay for the privilege. A nursing auxiliary was almost beaten to death by a patient before an early shift and she will never work again due to her head injury.

I’ve heard many stories of staff being mugged walking to cars after late shifts. Car parking company say it’s nothing to do with them.

That seems a ridiculous amount. I pay about £30 a month and resent that. If it was in the middle of a city then maybe fair enough but it isn’t. It’s in a suburb. There is no need to charge that much. It’s just a blatant income generator.

Are you permanent staff? Not agency or bank for example.
That is an obscene amount if not. Well it's obscene anyway, but unfortunately normal for non-permanent staff.

I work in a hospital and pay that per month. Though I'm part time. I think it's around £25 per month for full time.

@SlowlyShrinking These hours wouldn't be unusual for nannies for ex, and they also need to be vigilant all day long. I am sure there are other examples.

Urubu. Yes being a nanny is an important job, but surely a lot less potential for anyone to die if a mistake is made? Also, do nannies usually have to pay their employers £15 a day to park?
And finally, it shouldn’t be a race to the bottom.

Hospital parking spaces are always limited and people have to be put off from using them if it is at all possible for them to not need a space. Pricing them high is one way to force people to use different options if it is remotely possible. So I don't think it's wrong, but the hospital should be doing everything possible to give people more options to reduce the need for parking places. P&R, carshare schemes (including preferential shift scheduling to help car sharers to have the same shifts), bike purchase schemes. Anything. It shouldn't just be about milking every penny out of people who need to park.

You shouldn't have to pay at all, and if completely necessary a couple of pounds or a cheap staff permit.

I wouldn’t be outraged. My commute is extortion, my work has paid parking if you want a guaranteed spot. If you don’t live in walking distance or biking distance or travel on cheaper public transport that’s that.

I agree that other workers have to pay to park, but ultimately I view essential healthcare services as more important than almost all others, and feel that the amount given by our NHS (sub police/fire services etc here) workers is extraordinary.

We should be enabling them to do the very best job they can - part of that is not expecting them to walk a long distance after their shift, spend an additional hour a day on a bus, or pay out up to 25% of their salary on parking.

Many nhs workers are poorly paid, so salary sacrifice parking charges according to pay seems the most reasonable option to me.

My NHS Trust has a dedicated person who will look at your shift patterns and work out public transport options for she.

The hospital is on the edge of town, and I live in a village 8 miles away (Hants). I am PT and work 9-5 three days a week, so not anti-social hours etc (apart from on-call which is another matter!). Bear in mind 'unsocial hours are pre 7am and post 10.30pm.....

She kindly worked out that if I were to walk for 20 minutes to a bus stop, and catch a bus, then walk 10 minutes the other end, I'd have to leave home at 7.20am and would return home at 6.20pm.

So a 16 mile commute would take 3 hours and cost £9 a day, and would involve a walk of an hour (I am on my feet all day).

So I pay someone to park on their driveway a 5 mins walk from work, £30 a month.

No brainer.

No way would I pay that. It is shocking that you are effectively getting paid £2500-3500 LESS a year. I'd have a crappy bike chained to lamppost in a residential area a couple of miles away and be using that as a make-shift park and ride.

A person employed by the NHS to work out your most effective commute?! Are people not capable of doing that themselves... please tell me that she's a volunteer.

“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!”

There are plenty of hospitals near city centre and also there are plenty of retail parks far away from the city centre with crap transport links. So yes, it is comparable IMO.

The reason it's paid parking at my local hospital is it's right next door to the train station. Imagine the chaos commuters could cause if it was free...

A person employed by the NHS to work out your most effective commute?! Are people not capable of doing that themselves... please tell me that she's a volunteer

I agree. Sorry, but that's insane.

I work in a hospital and use my car to visit community patients and still have to pay to park my car. Not sure that previous posters suggestions of walk, bus, cycle or car share would work...
I also live 15 miles from the hospital in a rural area with one bus an hour and need to take and collect dc from school and childminders.

Unless parking is extremely limited that's completely extortionate. £200+ per month. And to be charged even more after you spend a day working overtime is just adding insult.

I would be looking for a new job, and be disinclined to 'go the extra mile' in my current one.

DH and I both work in an office which is on an out of town development. This office and all other new office developments are built with some car parking spaces but never enough to cover the number of office staff that the buildings can accommodate. This is to encourage people to use other forms of transport. Problem is this town is surrounded by many small rural towns/villages which have rubbish public transport, so most people have to drive. So you can end up with people driving into town to park and then getting a bus to get to the office!

My office used to be in the city centre and had a car park underneath it but the car park was a public one and everyone had to pay for parking.

I am assuming very few jobs come with free parking

No perhaps a token rate for maintenance £1 per day

In an ideal world parking at the hospital should be free for patients and staff. If charges are in force then they should certainly be discounted for staff.

Most people have to pay to park where or near where they work but £10-£20 pounds per day IS outrageous, particularly as most hospital staff aren't particularly well paid.