Call to refund NHS staff parking
NHS staff in Scotland should be refunded the cost of hospital parking, according to the Scottish Conservatives.
Three major hospitals – Ninewel ls Hospital in Dundee, Edinburgh Royal Inf irmary and Glasgow Royal Infirmary – charge for parking, despite the practice being scrapped in 2008.
Staff and visitors have to pay as the hospitals are locked into private finance initiative arrangements.
The scheme was set up by the Conser vat ive government in the 1990s and allowed hospitals, schools and prisons to be built by private contractors before being rented back to the public sector.
Nurses at Glasgow Royal Inf irmary launched a petition this month after the parking tariff per hour was increased to £1.70.
Scottish Conservative MSP Mi les Briggs has suggested the cost of remunerating hospital workers would be “at most” £2.7million a year.
Briggs said: “It would also make a practical improvement to the working lives of NHS staff.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We agree parking charges at hospitals put an unnecessary financial burden on NHS staff as well as patients and families.
“This is why the health secretary wrote to APCOA, the firm who run the car park at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, to urge them to reconsider their policy of pursuing NHS staff over parking fines, as well as the increased charges.”