Hospital Car Parking Charges- keep an eye on the time

kazzah60

Bit of a random question here - but i am sure there will be someone here who knows the answer !

If you go into a car park which issues tickets as you enter, which require payment before leaving the car park
is there any legal requirement for the ticket to show the time you entered the car park?

the reason I ask is that our local hospital charges by the hour and after a £7.70 payment on Saturday after an A&E visit I started wondering how I ( as the ticket holder) could keep a tab on the time ( yes I know I could look at the clock as I enter - but if you are chasing an ambulance as I was- it's not your priority!)

I would have thought that a car parking service which charges by the hour would be obliged to print the time of entry onto the ticket so you could check it and make sure you don't stay longer than you need/want to in order to avoid exorbitant charges

if anyone knows the legalities surrounding this I would be most interested to hear

scotsbob

Did the government not abolish hospital parking charges four years ago? They certainly did in Scotland.

Roland_Sausage

scotsbob wrote: »

Did the government not abolish hospital parking charges four years ago? They certainly did in Scotland.

I can think of at least one hospital in Scotland that has parking charges adminstered by a private company.

Lum

I think they're abolished in Wales now.

Which reminds me I never did get a reply back to my complaint about a certain hospital in Cardiff that refused to admit me to A&E once I'd admitted I hadn't paid for my parking as I was in too much pain to wander about the site looking for a working pay&display machine.

scotsbob

Roland_Sausage wrote: »

I can think of at least one hospital in Scotland that has parking charges adminstered by a private company.

Then I suggest you notify a constable because the government abolished these charges.


http://www.hsj.co.uk/news/scottish-car-parking-charges-abolished/1823173.article#.UzxfhI1wYyV

pogofish

scotsbob wrote: »

Then I suggest you notify a constable because the government abolished these charges.


http://www.hsj.co.uk/news/scottish-car-parking-charges-abolished/1823173.article#.UzxfhI1wYyV

PFI-funded hospitals were allowed to keep-on charging in Scotland.

Charging was not removed in England, so some do, some don't. Some also operate a system where you get your ticket stamped by the ward/clinic concerned and then you don't have to pay - of course you need to know/remember to ask, which many forget to do.

If the OP wants to get into the Parking Tickets Forum, they will find a good bit of info on the charging regimes at many hospitals and yes, some are very shonky as there are actually very few legalities and some hosps/parking contractors play very fast and loose with the few there are.

AdrianC

scotsbob wrote: »

Did the government not abolish hospital parking charges four years ago? They certainly did in Scotland.

The nearest hospital to where we used to live (inside the M25) is a short walk from a large town centre, and right next door to a major football ground. If there were no parking charges, what do you think the chances of legitimate hospital visitors being able to park there would be?

How about central London hospitals? Should the NHS provide free parking for anybody and everybody who wants to use their space? At what cost? Or how do they restrict it to genuine hospital visitors?

Roland_Sausage

pogofish wrote: »

PFI-funded hospitals were allowed to keep-on charging in Scotland.

Looks like there are in fact 3 that still charge.

http://www.scotsman.com/news/health/hospital-car-park-charges-are-scrapped-but-not-at-pfi-sites-1-1088911

And I am pretty sure that the following didn't happen:

Nicola Sturgeon, the health secretary, said NHS boards should work with the private companies involved to keep the costs as low as possible for patients.

A._Badger

AdrianC wrote: »

The nearest hospital to where we used to live (inside the M25) is a short walk from a large town centre, and right next door to a major football ground. If there were no parking charges, what do you think the chances of legitimate hospital visitors being able to park there would be?

How about central London hospitals? Should the NHS provide free parking for anybody and everybody who wants to use their space? At what cost? Or how do they restrict it to genuine hospital visitors?

And a workable solution to those objections would take about two seconds to come up with (stamping tickets as suggested above, for example, or refunds) . Hospital parking charges are a disgrace - just another way of funding a bloated, bureaucratic system by plundering the motoring public.

[Deleted User]

Hospitals here use Parking Eye. I just smile to the camera and carry on.

kazzah60

thanks- have opened a thread on the car parking section