Sign up to make MPs end hospital parking rip-offs
EXCLUSIVE
CAMPAIGNERS, charities and patients’ groups are urging people to sign an online petition demanding an end to “rip-off” hospital parking fees.
They say the charges are a “stealth tax” on the sick and demand that Parliament takes action.
The sky-high tariffs can cost some patients and their distressed relatives £4 an hour.
Tory MP Robert Halfon launched the petition on the Government website after a nationwide outcry that the sick and vulnerable are a target for money-making health bosses.
The brain injury association Headway, children’s cancer charity CLIC Sargent, FairFuel UK and MPs are backing it.
If the petition gets 10,000 signatures the Government has to respond and at 100,000 it may be debated in Parliament.
Mr Halfon, MP for Harlow, said: “It’s time the Government stepped up and ended this stealth tax on the sick.
“Ultimately, we cannot say that the NHS is free at the point of access if drivers are charged to attend appointments or visit relatives. And it is appalling that hardworking NHS nurses, porters and cleaners are charged to go to work.”
Government guidance in 2014 advised NHS trusts to slash fees but this was ignored.
I HAD TO FORK OUT £4 FOR MY GRANDDAUGHTER’S THREE-MINUTE BLOOD TEST
Mr Halfon wants the guidance ripped up and replaced by rules that trusts must obey.
The Daily Express has been inundated with harrowing stories since the scandal broke. Widow Gillian Tarry said she paid more than £200 in a month to park at University Hospital, Coventry, where husband Bernard, 77, lay dying.
Mrs Tarry, 68, of Thrapston, Northants, who has been reimbursed by the Daily Express, said: “Paying for parking was added stress during an already extremely stressful time.”
In Wales and Scotland hospital GRAHAM Lint was left fuming after coughing up £4 for a 71-minute stay while taking his granddaughter for a blood test.
The retired Tesco executive took Summer Williams, 16, to the Edward Jenner Unit, at Gloucester Royal Hospital, where she had to wait more than an hour for a test that should have taken three minutes.
He said: “The car park charges £2.40 for the first hour and £4 for the next two. It seems to me that you are kept waiting just to push up the charges.”
Mr Lint added: “There parking is mainly free. In England, NHS trusts can charge what they like and trousered a record £174million from parking in 2016/17.
Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust in the West Midlands made over £4.8million. Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust, Surrey, raised over £3.9million. Trusts in Derby, Nottingham, Sheffield and Leeds made over £3million and two-thirds over £1million.
Royal Surrey County Hospital, Guildford, has the costliest car park at £4 an hour. Peter McCabe, chief executive of must be a way for hospitals to raise funds instead of having to tax patients and those who take them to hospital. It’s simply unfair and unjust.”
Hospital staff are charged £1.40 a day. Those earning under £31,695 park for free.
Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, runs the car park through commercial company, Indigo parking. It claims the charges are in line with those of other car parks in Gloucester to “discourage” people not visiting the hospital from parking there.
A trust spokesman said income generated by the hospital’s multi-storey car park pays for running costs. Any surplus is ploughed into hospital services.
Cancer patients and others receiving long-term treatment have reduced rates. There was also free parking for blue-badge disabled drivers.
He added: “We provide a 20-minute grace facility for ambulance, public and disabled drop-off/pick-up that affords people the opportunity to find a car parking space. Indigo also provides 24-hour parking attendant cover.” Headway, said: “Every day our emergency fund hears from families struggling to meet hospital parking costs.”
Howard Cox, FairFuelUK movement founder, said: “Not only is this a stealth levy on the sick, it is an immoral attack on low-income families. Anyone with a sense of fairness will sign the petition.”
The Department of Health said fees were under review and wanted trusts to find “options that put staff, patients and their families first”.
Sign at petition.parliament. uk/petitions/219650