DESPICABLE
Outrage as NHS bosses charge their hard-up nurses £1,300 a year to park
NURSES are being charged up to £1,300 a year to park at work.
The crippling fees for NHS staff on shockingly low pay sparked fury. One worker said: “It’s outrageous.”
ALREADY struggling with crippling wage freezes, soaring rents and living costs that are driving many into poverty, nurses could do without sky-high parking charges.
High parking charges are a tax on hard-working staff and should be outlawed NORMAN LAMB LIB DEM MP ON CRIPPLING NHS PARKING CHARGES
But private companies and health trusts are making them and other NHS workers pay through the nose to leave their cars at or near hospitals.
The most expensive was University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust, where cash-strapped staff fork out up to £1,300 a year to park at work.
Health staff, unions and MPs branded the high charges outrageous and demanded they be scrapped for workers who have dedicated their lives to the care of others, for little financial reward.
The shocking tariffs were exposed by the GMB union which used freedom of information requests to ask 247 NHS trusts if they made staff pay to park. National officer Kevin Brandstatter said: “Hard-working NHS staff are already being hit hard by the pay pinch, which means many are forced to food banks.
“The last thing they need is a further kick in the teeth having to fork out hundreds of pounds to park at work.”
General secretary Tim Roache added: “It is an outrage. Hospital workers who care for the sick deserve a medal, not being charged for the pleasure. Unfair charges add insult to injury.”
The Royal College of Nursing’s Gerry O’Dwyer said: “Hospitals run on the goodwill of staff but hefty parking charges show the feeling doesn’t go both ways. For some nurses, especially those who work nights, public transport isn’t an option.
“They work around the clock and should not be over-charged for doing their jobs. Nursing staff are £3,000 worse off than in 2010 and can do without these costs.
“The Government isn’t giving the NHS the funding it needs but hospitals should not try to make money off their staff.” Labour has vowed to axe hospital parking charges if Jeremy Corbyn gets into power and Shadow Health Secretary Jon Ashworth branded them “a burden, which disproportionately affects the most vulnerable people”. He added: “Even Jeremy Hunt has described this outrageous practice as a ‘stealth tax’, and yet Tory underfunding of our NHS has resulted in hospitals and private companies charging record fees to patients and staff.” Lib
Dem MP Norman Lamb said: “This survey reveals some shocking practices. High parking charges are a tax on hard-working NHS staff and this should be outlawed.”
Bristol trust’s £1,300-a-year charge is for full-time staff, including some nurses, using off-site commercial parking. But even its lowest-paid workers, such as secretaries, porters and cleaners, have to fork out £1,022 a year.
And those lucky enough to find one of the few on-site parking spots are charged up to £6.20 a day. The charges started in May. Of the 131 trusts that responded with specific figures to the GMB requests, 92 made staff pay for parking at work.
The Mirror told this year how nurses in Poole, Dorset, have to leave patients every couple of hours to dash out and move their vehicles because spaces in the hospital car park had been cut.
Some had to find a spot in residential streets which have a two-hour time limit and a £40 fine for overstaying.
Nurses yesterday spoke of their fury. One said: “Some staff could be on 24-hour call. This means come in and park or find somewhere nearby. It’s very stressful and expensive.” Another added: “It’s not just the staff, think of the patients. If you wife is in labour or you need cancer treatment you have to pay a lot, causing extra stress.”
Charlene Sibley, who works at Derriford hospital in Plymouth, said: “At a time when we’re feeling a pinch on pay and forced into using food banks, it’s outrageous to be facing such charges.”
Bristol trust defended their charges. A spokeswoman said: “We encourage staff to travel to our hospitals without using cars and provide a free bus service from the station. We provide on-site parking and discounted off-site parking for those who need to travel by car. Charges are on a sliding scale, based on salary and the Trust significantly subsidises off-site car parking so all staff are charged the same.”
She said the Trust also provides free parking for disabled staff or those with health needs as well as others who use their car for work or work out of hours.
The Department of Health said staff should not have to suffer unfair parking fees but shifted the blame on to NHS trusts insisting they “are responsible for the methods used to charge”.
The charges would be contemptible at any time but after years of pay freezes and measly below-inflation rises, the tolls are indefensible, a backdoor workplace tax on medical staff.
Hapless Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt should for once stop his ineffective handwringing and order Trusts to cut or, better still, abolish the exorbitant tolls on health grafters.
Jeremy Corbyn promising to make hospital car parking free for patients and staff, is a thick red line between Labour and Conservatives.
If Theresa May is genuinely committed to ending injustices and helping those “just about managing” she should copy Labour’s policy.
After losing her Parliamentary majority she dumped large parts of her manifesto, so why not adopt Labour’s best ideas?