Tories: Refund NHS staff parking

NHS staff in Scotland should be refunded the cost of parking at hospitals, according to the Scottish Conservatives.

Three major hospitals – Ninewells, Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and Glasgow’s Royal Infirmary – still charge for parking, despite the practice being scrapped in 2008.

Staff and visitors are still required to pay as the hospitals are locked into private finance initiative (PFI) arrangements.

The scheme was set up by the Conservative government in the 1990s and allowed hospitals, schools and prisons to be built by private contractors before being rented back to the public sector. Any money that remained following construction of the buildings, as well as “rent” money, could then be kept by the contractor.

Nurses at Glasgow Royal Infirmary launched a petition earlier this month after the parking tariff per hour was increased to £1.70.

Staff estimated the rise could cost them around £20 each day they attend work.

Scottish Conservative MSP Miles Briggs has suggested the cost of remunerating hospital workers would be “at most” £2.7 million a year.

Mr Briggs urged the Scottish Government to examine whether such a scheme would be feasible. “This would be the kind of gesture that would be affordable thanks to Barnett consequentials, and show NHS staff that they are valued by government and the taxpayer,” said Mr Briggs.

“It would also make a practical improvement to the working lives of NHS staff, many of whom work long and awkward hours at these hospitals.”