PALS Hospital parking template letter

badmedicine

I had some success in cancelling parking tickets from a hospital after DCBL tried sending me the usual guff…

please feel free to use my template directed at PALS which got my tickets cancelled within a week.

Dear St George’s Hospital PALS

I’d like to draw your attention to two very uncomfortable letters I received in the post today (attach pictures).

They appear to be letters from a private debt collection company (DCBL), for which my details have been sold by your private parking contractor (CPP). 

They claim to be collecting a fee of £xxx in total for a visit to the hospital in 20xx. Unfortunately, they do not go into any detail about why this amount is requested, and why the amount is so high. When trying to log into the website to see why they are taking such action for something that happened in 20xx, I am unable to get any more information other than the very vague “overstayed” and “no blue badge”.

Unfortunately, this is was long ago, I cannot possibly tell you exactly what happened on the day. The contractors website is also devoid of photographs/an explanation.

Moreover, this very threatening letter appears to take a quote from a popular TV show “ can’t pay, we’ll take it away”. I’m not sure how many more of your patients and visitors have also received these letters. However, I find the thoroughly distasteful given that this is a hospital site designed to cater for societies most vulnerable.

This letter is tantamount to a financial scam using the good name of the NHS. But this kind of predatory behaviour should be discouraged by St George’s, and I feel you need to raise this with your contractor. 

I took a moment to view the law on this and came across some very damning comments made by MPs in a recent debate about what they called “cowboys”, “bloodsuckers”, and termed their actions “unscrupulous behaviour”. You can read the bill and the comments for yourself (attached). It also states that companies must report a financial loss. Now I’m sure the NHS needs more funding - but I’m not sure this is quite the spirit! 

I wonder if the trust is aware of this, and if they are, are they approving of such letters being sent out to the public, threatening debt collectors knocking on the door if they don’t pay these wildly inflated costs? 

I would urge the trust to speak to the operator and put an end to this, as it is clearly disingenuous profiteering behaviour conducted on an NHS site. I also do not wish to receive any more of these letters which are clearly at odds with the will of MPs who are trying to ban them! 

Please respond with how you plan to tackle this, as I will surely be highlighting this with our local MP, and gaining a legal opinion should they continue. 

Thank you for your time, and I hope you agree with my sentiments. Otherwise I have only great things to say about the service and care at the Hospital. 

Sincerely

Coupon-mad

That's great!  Nicely seen off.

Please could you also add it in a reply in 'Successful Complaints about PPCs' because it will be more easily findable there in future.

That thread is the first hyperlink in the NEWBIES thread.