Hospital visit just cost us £30

bootman

Hospital car park charges are so unfair.

My mum has just been diagnosed with cancer. Which means not only will I have to take her to the hospital which is a 60 mile round trip I will have to pay the parking fees every day. We have been told to experct to have to make at least 60 visits over the course of her treatment.

Its just outrageous. Making money out of sick people.

Anniek1969

I know how important it is for doctors to ask the appropriate questions in order to get the right diagnosis. My father was an ambulanceman for over 20 years before he retired and my brother has been an ambulanceman for the past 28years so I have every sympathy with medical people who work within the NHS, my point was that had he been told that it wasn't urgent he could have arranged to see him on another occasion and had her records been updated there would have been no need to ask the same questions again. It simply comes down to the NHS being so underfunded and understaffed that sometimes records are not kept as up-to-date as they should be and you sometimes have to answer the same questions repeatedly. I'm not blaming the doctor for doing his job just merely venting my frustrations about how unfair life can be sometimes.

Anniek1969

Hi Bootman, sorry to hear about your mum hope everything goes ok for her. Like you say not only do you have the stress of the illness and the travelling you have to pay for the fuel and the parking.

Surely there must be somewhere you can get help with these costs, is she a pensioner or on benefit because I think you can claim back some of your hospital expenses from the DSS. I'm sure my SIL claimed some of hers back when she had to take her son to outpatients when he was getting physio after breaking his arm.

I'd give it a try anyway. Ask at the hospital you might get a nice surprise and find out there is some help. Even if you get a free parking pass it would be better than nothing.

lisadupreez

I work for a hospital dealing with these kind of queries. If it were parking in the hospital grounds they would have no problem waiving the fee (probably wouldn't have got it in the first place) but unfortunately having the same parking prob's at our hospital the Council will not issue a refund - even though it was the doctor's fault. They just don't budge.

LondonDiva

bootman wrote:

Hospital car park charges are so unfair...

Its just outrageous. Making money out of sick people.

Hospitals main priority is to treat sick people, they are not under an obligation to provide parking considering that many hospitals are served by buses, those on benefits can reclaim transport costs and they are able to provide transport for the vulnerable.

As we would expect to pay for the upkeep of parking spaces in town, general car parks etc, why is it unfair that the hospital ensures that it is not subsiding land it could probably build on?

I've worked in hospitals where the majority of parkers have been shopping nearby, going to a match etc and a significant minority parking in ambulance and drop off bays for convinience rather than in emmergencies.

Yes it can prove expensive, but the alternative is to have no parking at all.

moonrakerz

Regretably, hospitals seem to have become the latest avenue for extracting money from the public.

The Great Western Hospital in Swindon, has been open 3 years, in that time it has raked in £1.2M in parking charges, the parking fees start at 90p for the first hr then rocket - 8 hrs or over is £35 !!!. The "excuse" given for the high prices is to discourage commuters parking there - if that is true, the charges just need to be higher than the other car parks in town, which I don't think are £34 a day.
Recently a lady with a disabled sticker got a £30 fine for parking in a "staff" bay because all the disabled spaces were full. Yet again the poor old motorist is seen as a bottomless moneypit to be plundered.
During the day it costs 49p a minute to phone into a Patientline bedside phone - ONLY 39p a minute off-peak though.
An egg sandwich and a can of coke cost me £3.30.

It will soon be cheaper to go private ! Perhaps that is the objective - silly me - why didn't I think of that before.

Fuzzy_2

They even charge the staff a to park there, and they aren't guaranteed a space. I was fined at the old site for parking at the end of a row, in an unmarked car park (gravelled waste ground), and the borough council wouldn't budge. I know of many staff who have been ticketed too on the new site; what are they supposed to do? Go home if they can't find a space? Then the patients stuffer as a result. I really do feel sorry for the patients, they don't need that additional stress.

One (and only one) thing in the Trust's favour they do have a couple of parking attendents, and they are there to help out, and they do a great job in some very difficult circumstances.

They way they issue the staff permits is pretty draconian to, I know of several staff who have left as they could not get one. It's one of the most contentious issues at the site, apart from agenda for change, and don't get me started on that one!

twink

i am sorry to hear about your mum bootman could you get in touch with macmillan nurses to see about help with travel and/or parking charges, i know this is something they are concerned about that is paying to park esp

WHA

Anniek1969 wrote:

It simply comes down to the NHS being so underfunded and understaffed

You are joking aren't you. NHS funding has doubled in the last 7 years and rumour has it that the NHS is around the 3rd largest employer in the world. The trouble is that throwing money and more staff at the NHS will not improve it. The underfunding and understaffing argument just doesn't wash anymore.

kenshaz

bootman wrote:

Hospital car park charges are so unfair.

My mum has just been diagnosed with cancer. Which means not only will I have to take her to the hospital which is a 60 mile round trip I will have to pay the parking fees every day. We have been told to experct to have to make at least 60 visits over the course of her treatment.

Its just outrageous. Making money out of sick people.

My wife was receiving Radiotherapy treatment at Clatterbridge on the Wirral,and they do not charge for parking,this is a cancer hospital,on the other hand the Countess of Chester charges £2 ,this is a general hospital,this makes my blood boil,they are forcing you to pay ,you have no option.
Take care and I understand