No value in free parking

Sir, – “New call to subsidise car owners’ costs from the National Health budget.”

This should have been the headline for your front page article “New call for end to Ninewells charges” (The Courier, July 10).

The facts are that parking charges at Ninewells Hospital, at four hours for £2.30, rather than being “ridiculous”, are in fact the cheapest car parking charges in Dundee.

Charges, it must be said, regularly paid by people going shopping or even for a cup of coffee – which is generally more than £2.30.

It is also useful to reflect just what fraction of the staff costs, let alone the cost of drugs, the use of expensive equipment such as X-ray machines and MRI scanners, associated with treatment at the hospital, that £2.30 represents.

As for the statement by MSP Bill Bowman that some car owners do not have £2.30 in their pockets, one wonders why Mr Bowman is not making the case for free bus fares to Ninewells for those who have to use public transport to get there, and for recompense for those forced to travel by taxi?

I am also surprised that Mr Bowman, as an elected representative who must be aware of the financial pressures on the National Health budget and the need to prioritise essential expenditure, does not give us a list of the medical procedures he considers should be cancelled so as to provide free parking at Ninewells?

All in all Mr Bowman seems a prime example of one who knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

Jack Searle. 32 Farington Street, Dundee.