Daylight robbery in our hospitals
HOSPITAL car parking fees are emblematic of the flagrant disrespect for patients that so many complain about in the NHS. Despite having already paid for hospitals through our taxes, we’re expected to pay again for parking there. it’s an insult.
i’m sick of the NHS using patients to generate revenue, whether it’s car parking charges, or extortionate costs for watching Tv or making a phone call.
And now hospitals increasingly resemble shopping malls, with large chains pushing out League of Friends shops. These restaurants, newsagents and coffee shops can charge their captive market premium rates, and too often they do so.
They are mercenaries not bound by the founding principles of the NHS, and hospitals are happy to collude with them because of the income they generate.
This all began after the introduction of the ‘ internal market’, when trusts were expected to supplement their income from commercial retail rentals and service contracts, and they now see milking patients for cash as a way to balance the books.
Earlier this week, the RAC reported that more than a third of hospital trusts still don’t offer patients the ability to pay for car parking by card — despite 2014 guidelines saying they should make parking convenient for patients and relatives.
The RAC concluded that too many hospitals have ‘unreasonable’ rules that cause unnecessary stress when it comes to parking, including forcing drivers to pay as soon as they arrive so some overestimate and therefore overpay for their stay.
But why are there charges in the first place? it’s a tax on the sick, and a rank exploitation of the weak and vulnerable.
NHS staff are in the same boat. On Tuesday a colleague was close to tears because her parking permit — for which staff pay — had expired and the office to renew the ticket wasn’t open when her clinic started at 8.45am.
So she’d parked with a note on her car explaining the situation, and went to treat her patients. On her way to renew the ticket at lunchtime she discovered she’d been issued an £80 fine.
in Scotland, Wales and northern ireland, NHS parking is free. What a disgraceful and pitiful situation that those in England are increasingly seen by hospitals as cash cows. So much for the NHS’s guiding principle of equality of access.