HOSPITAL PARKING FIRM MAKES PROFIT OF £9.8M
Terror at 36,000ft
ONE of Britain’s biggest hospital parking firms has had a huge leap in profits – sparking fresh calls to scrap the “immoral” charges.
Parking Eye made £9.8million last year – 49 per cent up from £6.6m in 2016, latest accounts show. The firm manages 900 car parks, including 17 hospital sites. The news will fuel public anger over profits made from NHS car parks and put pressure on new Health Secretary Matt Hancock to abolish the charges.
Hospital trusts in England raked in nearly £150million from parking and fines last year. Health charities and MPs have blasted fees as a “tax on the sick” and Labour pledged to scrap them in its 2017 manifesto.
Sara Gorton, of public sector union Unison, said: “The new health secretary should make scrapping these immoral charges top of his to-do list.” Backed by MPs, the Sunday Mirror has also called on the Government to abolish charges.
Shadow Health Spokeman Jonathan OXYGEN masks dangle from a cabin ceiling following a terrifying mid-air drama in which a plane dropped 26,000ft through the sky.
More than 30 passengers, some bleeding from their ears, were given hospital treatment after the aircraft made an emergency landing.
The Ryanair flight from Ireland to Croatia was diverted after losing cabin pressure and descending from 36,000ft to 10,000ft in just seven minutes.
Passenger Miomir Todorovic tweeted this photo of the interior of the plane, which altered course for Germany. A total of 33 of the 189 passengers Ashworth said: “I congratulate the Sunday Mirror for taking up this cause.”
Parking Eye says that less than 10 per cent of its business comes from the NHS, adding: “We have always been a member of the British Parking Association and follow its strict code of practice in all car parks we manage.” on board Flight FR7312 from Dublin to Zadar were taken to hospital, according to police in Frankfurt.
Mum-of-three Sarah McGarry, who said she had a burst eardrum, said: “We were left in darkness with people shouting ‘Emergency’. There was a baby and children, people screaming.”
Other passengers complained they were “abandoned” inside the airport, saying they were given little food or drink and had to sleep on cold floors.
Ryanair said the crew had made a controlled descent but admitted there was an accommodation shortage near the airport.