NHS Parking

Surfer01

For the past 2-3 years our local NHS hospital removed parking charges.  They were ridiculously expensive starting at £2.50 for 1st hour.  However now that we have a Cost of Living crisis that will affect every one, the NHS has decided that they will starting imposing parking charges again for every one whether disabled with a Blue Badge or not.  If the charge was £1 for the 1st hour then an additional 50p for every extra hour we probably would not mind too much, but £2.50 for 1st hour is a bit much and then it increases substantially.  Annoyingly the car park is managed by the Private Parking company who are probably creaming it when charges are introduced. 

Parking at the hospital in question is very limited and you could end up driving around the block 2 - 3 times before finding parking.  Also the chances of seeing the doctor or specialist within the hour are very remote as it is a main hospital serving a large community.  Recently OH spent 2 weeks in hospital through no choice of their own and if charges had been in force at the time, as a pensioner I would not have been able to do the round trip of 26 miles each day plus pay the parking charges.  It is no fun being in hospital and not being able to see those closest to you.  I really think that our loacl NHS should not be reintroducing parking charges at this time especially as it line the pockets of a private individual

Unfortunately our MP is as much good as a wet paper bag and all you get from her is that she will contact the relevant department and then you never hear from her again.  She is definitely the worst MP ever elected for our area so not holding much hope that she will actually do anything as she only shows her face for photo opportunities. 

fisherjim

You are correct this is not on, however the private parking company do not get the parking fees, they "manage" the car park for free so they can cream off the PCN money from motorists that don't keep to their terms and conditions traps.

That's why they are so predatory, and unforgiving.

Le_Kirk

You might want to remind the Hospital (via PALS) and your MP of the NHS parking principles: -
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nhs-patient-visitor-and-staff-car-parking-principles/nhs-patient-visitor-and-staff-car-parking-principles

Surfer01

Le_Kirk said:

You might want to remind the Hospital (via PALS) and your MP of the NHS parking principles: -
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nhs-patient-visitor-and-staff-car-parking-principles/nhs-patient-visitor-and-staff-car-parking-principles

Thanks for the link.  Our hospital makes Blue Badge holders to park in disabled bays.  To get back any parking charges you have to jump through many hoops so many people who have a BB simply pay rather than go through all the additional stress.