Is it me ? Hospital parking

Wig

It has to be this way, otherwise people would park in the hospital and go elsewhere, as it is the overflow from hospitals usually clogs up all the nearby residential streets.

This is a result of the car dependant world we have, there should be better public transport to take you to the hospital.

And I don't think it's such a hard pill to swallow to pay 2 quid when you are getting free healthcare.

zz9pa

Its not free healthcare - its paid for out of my taxes and yours, I wish people would remember that !

And yes - there is the argument about stopping people parking and going elsewhere - but then you just give real patients a token when they leave...

As for the NHS being so hard up - seems they can afford £70,000 for a rock!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4184104.stm


AFAICS - the only arguments that stand any scrutiny atm seem to be "at least its a way for the poor NHS to get some much needed money" - but thats what the tax system is for !

albreda

With regards to 'free or not free' I understand it to be subsidised. The portion of your NI contribution that directly goes toward the NHS could never fully pay for it. The government has to put up the rest from other sources (some from other taxes perhaps). If a person actaully had to 'pay' for the treatment they'd get a nasty shock. Even prescription charges dont fully cover the costs of many drugs people are given. Let them have their parking fees for goodness sake - whats a few pounds so that you can visit your loved ones and contribute to the hospital that is caring for them?

Wig

Agreed, (with above post).

OP, ok so it's not "free" healthcare (but it is to some), I still think you're moaning about something which I find totally acceptable, a couple of quid, so you can take your children to hospital, where you are not faced with a bill for your treatment.

albreda

:T Albreda isn't moaning - he's all for charging for parking :T

Wig

Sorry Albreda, I didn't mean you, I've edited now.

Lexis200

Wig wrote:

It has to be this way, otherwise people would park in the hospital and go elsewhere, as it is the overflow from hospitals usually clogs up all the nearby residential streets.

This is a result of the car dependant world we have, there should be better public transport to take you to the hospital.

And I don't think it's such a hard pill to swallow to pay 2 quid when you are getting free healthcare.

I don't think anyone disagrees that there should be better public transport, but the fact is that in many places it is appalling and cars are needed. This point (and many others on here) also conveniently ignores the people who have to get themselves to hospital for treatments and would not be fit afterwards to hop on a bus.

And no, £2 isn't a lot if you're only going to the hospital once in a blue moon, but many people have to go many times a week and that does mount up. How many of you complain about the congestion charge in London? A visit to the hospital for a patient or a visitor who has to stay for more than a couple of hours can rack up way more than £8 a day, and unlike people travelling to work they aren't being paid to go, and they don't have the choice of getting another job out of the charging area. If it did go to the hospitals who need it I don't think there would be such a problem with it, but there are many privately owned car parks where the hospitals don't see a penny of what's taken, and even if it is a hospital run scheme I would be willing to bet that the money isn't just taken out of the meters and put into direct improvements in the hospital itself!

I'd like to see how acceptable the charges would be to people if you actually did need to visit/have treatment for any length of time rather than just nipping in for an hour to visit the poor sod lying in the bed!

As zz9pa said, if they're worried about non-patients using the parking facilities, introduce some sort of token or ticket that shows you have to be there.

IvanOpinion

Lexis200 wrote:

As zz9pa said, if they're worried about non-patients using the parking facilities, introduce some sort of token or ticket that shows you have to be there.

But what you have done is introduce a cost without revenue. You would have to employ people to check and issue tokens and once casual-parkers catch on they will stop using the car park ... so the checkers become an overhead and are done away with and the casual parkers start using the car park again .. vicious circle. Then to finance this overhead which department should have its funding reduced.

While I have never believed the health service is underfunded (just very wasteful) any source of revenue should help. Many hospitals are on bus routes therefore there is the option of parking elsewhere and using public transport ... alternatively pay-as-you-go is the fairest system. The biggest issue I would have is turning up fro an appointment to find that the consultant has decided to play a 3 hour game of golf before seeing his patients (which has happened to me).

I think that in this day and age we have to expect to pay for parking our cars no matter we leave them. Why not? The hospital could probably put the land to much better use by putting more buildings instead of car parks ... but people nowadays complain if they have to walk more than 50 paces.

If you use the facilities then don't complain about paying for them.

Ivan

HugoRune_2

I work for a trust and our local hospital has just doubled the fees for parking to 4 pounds, though on the plus side, we've been informed by the finance dept that 50% of the extra raised can be put towards our christmas bash, which is just as well as we've booked a rather expensive country hotel for the do.

Lexis200

IvanOpinion wrote:

But what you have done is introduce a cost without revenue. You would have to employ people to check and issue tokens and once casual-parkers catch on they will stop using the car park ... so the checkers become an overhead and are done away with and the casual parkers start using the car park again .. vicious circle.
Ivan

Not always true; it's quite possible for you to pick up something when you have an appointment or treatment, for the receptionist to hand you a ticket is hardly going to add to their workload, there is no need for this to be done by someone at the car park itself. I admit this wouldn't be the case with pay and display, and I don't know what to suggest there, but for pay on foot there would be no problem. And again, when you say people should stop complaining or leave the car, how are you expecting poeple who CAN NOT do this to cope? As I have now said twice before (although this is being completely ignored in subsequent posts) there are some treatments (Chemo, Dialysis etc) where you are just too wasted afterwards to be safe to drive, and certainly even if the transport did run near the hospital there's no way you would be fit to use it. What do you expect these people to do? Use the overstretched and underfunded ambulance service, or perhaps the voluntary taxis that (if you can actually manage to book one) will routinely have you waiting for hours whilst you are feeling rancid, as they too have far more people than they can cope with.

With regards to which department should have it's funding reduced, how about whoever is responsible for art in the hospital. Ours has just spent several thousand on artwork for inside the lifts and in the lift lobby!

I do especially like your 'if you use the facitlities then don't complain about paying for them'; you make it sound like a nice little trip to the cinema or something. Do you really think people choose to go to the hospital?

No one is saying make it free, but (particularly where private car parks are concerened, which is what I have a real issue with) where's the harm in trying to make it fairer?