NHS car park ban on payment at exit boosts risk of clamping

HOSPITAL patients and visitors are are at risk of being clamped because car parks are not allowing payment on exit or contactless payment, figures show.

Four in 10 NHS trusts will take only payment in loose change, an investigation reveals, while one third restrict drivers to paying up front.

The RAC collected data under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) from 164 out of 206 hospital trusts in England, of which 125 charged for parking.

It found two in three allowed drivers to pay on exit, enabling them to meet the cost for the length of their stay.

As a result, many going to hospital for emergency treatment, appointments or to visit the sick could face penalty notices or being clamped if visits take longer than expected.

Others could end up paying far more than necessary for their visit, if they overestimate how long they might have to wait, the RAC warned.

The organisation called on hospitals to modernise their systems of parking, to allow drivers to use contactless payments, credit cards and to pay on exit.

The study found 38 per cent of trusts had no option to pay by credit or debit card at any of their sites, and only one third allowed people to pay by card at all their hospital sites.

RAC spokesman Simon Williams said: “Anyone arriving at hospital, be they a patient or visitor, have far more important things to worry about than paying for parking. It is for that very reason that things should be made as stress-free as possible – and that includes taking the pain out of paying to park.

“These figures show that in many cases it is still too difficult for people to pay to park when they make a visit to a hospital in England, with drivers still expected to carry pocketfuls of change in order to park legally – despite the advent first of credit and debit card payments, and now contactless and mobile payment technology,” he said.

“In the 21st century, we also think it is unreasonable to expect drivers to have to estimate how long their visit to hospital might take – payment on exit, while perhaps not appropriate for smaller hospital car parks, should be rolled out at larger sites as far as it is practicable.”

He said the new £1 coin would mean many machines need to be upgraded, which “provides a good opportunity for a wider range of payment options to be made available to drivers”.

Figures from almost 90 NHS trusts showed they netted £120,662,650 in 2015/16 in car park charges, up from £114,873,867 the year before.

Hospital parking in Wales and Scotland is largely free but patients in England are still forced to pay.