Is it me ? Hospital parking

juno

For our hospital you have to pay, but if you have a disabled badge and wave it at the barriers there's a camera and a man opens the barrier for you for free. They also have a special disabled car park, but it's always full and not necessarily closest to where you want to go.

Also, if you've got certain proofs of low income you can get a form stamped by the clinic you attend and then you get your bus fare/car park fee/other travel costs paid back.

And if you're visiting often then I think you can get a weekly pass which is more affordable.

inmypocketnottheirs

When town centres charge for parking, it is generally out of choice that one would chose to visit. How many hospital visitors go there out of choice? Therefore to be charged parking, whether as a visitor, in patient, out patient, is nothing short of unacceptable.

I have today returned from taking my wife for an out patient appointment, and had to pay £1.50.

To charge for hospital parking is disgraceful.

pesky2

I think it is shocking the amount Hospitals charge, our local hospitals one charges £2.10 a day and the other £2.00 i don't mind a nominal fee of 50p if i had to pay but it is shocking what they charge and even worse when you find out that it is the contractors who own the land and the money goes to them. Also the ones with barriers are a nightmare for me as i have a low car and have to open the door and have banged it once and if i am in a lft hand drive car on the day it's even worse.

RIP OFF !!!!!!

Mumstheword

But if they didn't charge, the car parks would be full of staff cars, so we visitors and patients would have nowhere to park at all. Whilst it goes against the grain to pay to visit a hospital, if that means I can park as close to the building as is available, then I go along with it.

Lexis200

lisyloo wrote:

So who do you think should pay for the land for you to park your private vehicle on?
Wouldn't it be more environmentally friendly and socially repronsible to go by public transport, bicycle or foot if you can (I know this is not possible for everyone and every place).

Not being nasty or anything just playing "devils advocate" to further the discussion :-)

Fair enough to play devils advocate, but now I have to butt in

The car park next to the hospital I regularly have to go to is privately owned and unmanned. Nearest public transport is a mile away which I could do on my own, but I have to take my two little ones when I go and they're not up to that, and the hospital is up a steep incline (nice bit of forward planning there!) so walking for many is not an option. The parking is £1.20 an hour, and thankfully I don't have to go too often now, but I curse every time I do!There is parking on the street outside the hospital (down the hill) but in the years I've been going there I have never found a spot. When I was on dialysis at a London hospital I was there for 6 hours at a time, minimum, 3 times a week. Their parking was also privately owned, and was 1.40 an hour (and we're talking about 7/8 years ago here) and as a little added bonus, after 6 hours the parking jumped to £15 :eek: and went skyward from there. Smashing.

What about cancer patients receiving chemo etc? To be charged when you are seriously ill is just a kick in the teeth. There are no concessions for this sort of illness or for the ongoing checks, and I'm pretty sure this goes for many other patients who have absolutely no choice in their transport.

I'm sure there are other places and people in exactly the same position, and while I realise in some cases it is not possible for whoever owns the car park, be it hospital or private company to give free parking, it should not be this much. Would it not be more socially responsible for car park owners/hospital managers to allow the people who have to come to hospital for several hours several days a week for lifesaving treatment to at least have a bit of reduced parking?




Sorry to rant, but this subject really winds me up :mad:

Hermia

My local hospital has car parking rates that are similar to the local shopping centres. The charges range from 70p - £16. I had to go in for day surgery last year and came out of the hospital to find that I had to pay about £7. There is very little street parking near, it's hard to get to by bus and expensive to get to by taxi.

What especially annoys me is that all the spaces near the hospital are reserved for staff and the ones for the public are the furthest away. Walking across a very large and busy car park when you've just had surgery or have an elderly or infirm person with you is no laughing matter. I could understand if they let staff who were working late nights park near the hospital, but I always see big, strapping consultants walking out to their cars at 3pm! I work in a public library and the staff who drive are told to make sure the spaces near the building are kept free for the elderly, infirm and those with kids.

albreda

Spare a thought for the staff who have to park everyday not just a couple of times to visit a sick relative. My partner would have to pay £10 :eek: per day to park when he works at the Royal in Edinburgh. He's an agency nurse and chooses to do night shifts, only £3.50 per night to park so doesn't have to pay to much.

Hospitals clearly do need money, no one should feel comfortable to argue they dont. Perhaps it isn't used properly but that doesnt detract from the fact that they need it. To begrudge the hospital £2 to park seems to me very petty. :rolleyes:

Be thankful I'm not incharge! I personaly would abandon the NHS (people complain about it so much anyway, perhaps they'd appreciate it more if it was taken off them?) and make everyone pay for medical insurance - can't pay, don't get the care! And the parking fees would be extortionate too! :T

gravitytolls

Albreda, you're not planning to stand for parliament on that stance are you LOL?

Actually I think parking charges are extorionate too.

I don't object to paying to visit, but I think it's abit rich to charge patients.

Whe I had my last baby, we were charged, but because I was a patient the fee was reduced to the standard one hour rate of £2, as are all patient fees, but still I kind of think patients have no option, as transport in rural areas is so appalling, but to take their cars.

You may suggest I didn't HAVE to go to hospital to give birth, but actually I did, as I was refused the oppurtunity of a home birth due to staff shortages. Although, as it turned out, my blood pressure problems meant a hospital birth anyway.

But by and large I agree with the OP, hospital parking fees are just another tax on the poor, cos let's face it, the NHS is under huge strain, and we would all rather go to lovely plush, private hospital if we could afford it.

albreda

gravitytolls wrote:

Albreda, you're not planning to stand for parliament on that stance are you LOL?

Haha, no - Can you imagine? The UK's first Gay, Mixed-Race Priminister - all for scrapping the NHS, ending the welfare state and re-introducing punishment to fit the crime (branding, whipping, disfigurement). I'd whip things back into shape - literally!! :eek:

I'd certainly be a first.....probably a last too

Would I get the vote do you think? :rotfl:

elona

As I pointed out to my husband's cousin - who was all for hanging and flogging offenders- "Don't do that - Flog them first and then hang them or they won't get the benefit"

He was not to sure how to take that LOL