Hospital staff hit by parking charges

Nursing union urges rethink on fees

HEALTH: Hospital staff are being hit in the pocket by “hefty” parking charges levied by three out 10 NHS trusts. Figures showed doctors and nurses are expected to pay at 348 out of 1,175 hospitals with parking.

HOSPITAL STAFF are being hit in the pocket by “hefty” parking charges levied by three out 10 NHS trusts.

A nursing union has criticised the fees after latest figures showed doctors and nurses are expected to pay at 348 out of the 1,175 hospitals with parking facilities.

Staff are charged up to the equivalent of £80 to park for a 40hour working week, according to figures from the NHS Estates Return Information Collection.

It follows accusations that NHS trusts are “taxing the sick” after it emerged that Yorkshire hospitals recouped £13m in charges during 2016-17.

The latest figures show that highest average charge for staff is £2 per hour at both the Edgware Community Hospital, north-west London and Birmingham Children’s Hospital.

The highest average charge for patients is £3.20 per hour at St Thomas’ Hospital, central London, analysis by motoring research charity the RAC Foundation revealed.

Gerry O’Dwyer, senior employment relations adviser at the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), said: “Hefty parking charges are disadvantaging nursing staff who work around the clock to keep our NHS afloat.

“Many work through the night to care for patients and using public transport to get home isn’t an option.

“Hospital car parks require running and maintenance costs but after years of pay restraint nursing staff should not be overcharged for doing their jobs.

“The Government isn’t giving the NHS the funding it needs but struggling hospitals should not try to make money off their staff.

“Their goodwill won’t last forever.

“We need reasonable car-parking provision with reasonable and affordable charges.”

The latest data also shows that 132 hospitals now charge for disabled parking.

Official Department of Health and Social Care guidance is for NHS organisations to ensure staff can reach sites “as safely, conveniently and economically as possible”.

RAC Foundation director Steve Gooding said: “Few parking issues are as incendiary as charging people to leave vehicles at hospitals, be they patients, visitors or staff.

“Many hospitals are on builtup locations, on constrained sites, so some sort of control is inevitable, but this needs to be proportionate and stress-free.

“Government guidance encourages hospitals to use pay-onexit systems. This would at least mean the anxiety associated with a hospital visit is not compounded by paying up front and having to predict to the second how long a visit will last.”

Seventy-five members of staff at a hospital in Cardiff were left owing thousands of pounds in parking tickets last year. Some complained a lack of spaces forced them to park in unauthorised areas.

NHS hospitals made a record £175m in 2016-17 from charging patients, visitors and staff for parking, up six per cent on the year before.