SilentCallsVictim wrote on Jan 11^th, 2011 at 12:43pm:



SCV being negative as usual. At least this a start and a step in the right direction .(the insurance idea, not SCV being negative!!)

It is ok for Londoners who can hop on  bus or a tube to get to their hospital or doctor relativity easy, us folk who live in the sticks, who have to drive to a hospital would find the hospital parking the most expensive bit, even with fuel rising in price. Indeed, in my county you have to drive into the next county to visit a hospital, so even if we can park on NHS land for 'free' with the help of this new insurance it would be a great help.

I must be lucky. My local hospital uses a geographic number.

Carparking is normally £2.60 for two hours. I have to spend 5 hours in hospital, three times a week for haemodialysis, so I get a reduced rate parking ticket: £2.50 for the three days.

Better than that (shhh!) they'll arrange taxi transport for me for free.

Not sure how long they have been doing this as they used to charge a lot more, but Royal Preston Hospital have a 24 hour charging period for £1.50;-
"Patients and visitors pay a fixed car parking charge of £1.50. per 24 hour period (*equivalent to 6p. per hour unless they are classified as exempt from charges. The first 15 minutes form entering the car parks is free of charge. "

Also a discounted ticket;-
"For out-patients who attend frequently as part of their treatment, or in-patients who have visitors attending regularly, and are not exempt from car parking charges, a 7 day discounted ticket may be purchased at a cost of £7.00 (equivalent to 4p. per hour) as opposed to the normal £1.50 per day (equivalent to 6p. per hour)."

They also have an exemption policy (and an 01 telephone number);-
"Exemption letters may be obtained from the respective Ward Managers and will be required when exiting the car parks."



Royal Preston Hospital

SilentCallsVictim wrote on Jan 12^th, 2011 at 1:27pm:


I don't think anyone would object to pay what Royal Preston Hospital are charging.


The charges to park at East Surrey Hospital  (Redhill) http://www.surreyandsussex.nhs.uk/travel/parking.asp  are below. Whist they probably seem quite reasonable for a one off visit, to make regular visits as an out patient or as a visitor I think is very expensive.

Length of stay            Charge
Up to 15 minutes      No charge: if visitors are unable to find a parking space, exit within this time.
0 - 2 hours                      £2
2-3 hours                       £3
3-4 hours                       £4
4-5 hours                       £5
5-6 hours                       £6
6-7 hours                       £7
7-8 hours                       £8
8-9 hours                       £9
10-24 hours                  £12

Over 24 hours £25 per day

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8556490/Hospitals-attacked-over-out...



By Alastair Jamieson

9:00PM BST 04 Jun 2011


Across the NHS in England, total profits from parking rose by 14 per cent last year, to around £32 million.

The increase came as two trusts - West Hertfordshire, and Luton and Dunstable - introduced minimum parking charges of £4.

The charges were condemned as "outrageous" and a "tax on the sick" by the Patients Association, which called on the Coalition to make hospital parking free in England, as it is in Scotland and Wales.


On average, two hours' hospital parking costs £2.29 – 60 per cent higher than the average for council car parks used by shoppers. Half of all trusts levy a minimum charge, with no free parking except for key groups such as cancer patients.
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Some of the trusts making the most profit from parking have been condemned for poor patient care. Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS trust, one of four making an annual profit of more than £1 million, last week apologised for leaving patients so dehydrated that doctors were forced to prescribe water.

The other three trusts making more than £1 million were Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, Southampton University Hospitals and South London Healthcare.

Michelle Mitchell, charity director at Age UK, said: "Many older people and their families rely on their car to attend hospital.

"Hospitals must not make car parking charges an unreasonable barrier to getting treatment or unfairly penalise people for visiting relatives who often help to provide care."

Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, said: "These new figures reveal the startlingly high costs some patients are facing. Hospitals should not have to rely on charging patients and visitors to park to make ends meet.

"It is outrageous that some hospitals are charging sick people so much money to access services they need.

"Car parking charges make a mockery of a service supposed to be free at the point of need, and we urge the Department of Health to scrap these charges as they have been in Scotland and Wales."

The figures are based on a Freedom of Information request to England's 175 acute hospital trusts. Three-quarters replied, and nationwide totals were extrapolated from their responses.

The findings revealed big differences between hospitals. While four trusts recorded £1 million-plus profits from parking last year, the majority said they broke even and six made a loss.

The total paid by patients and visitors to park at hospitals has risen by one-third in three years, from £111 million in 2007/08 to around £149 million in 2010/11.

Seven trusts made more than £2 million in revenue last year, including Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust which collected £2.8 million from patients and visitors.

Those making the biggest profit were mostly foundation trusts, which operate like businesses and which will become the template for all hospitals under the Government's planned NHS reforms.

The figures also show 109,000 fines were issued in hospital car parks last year, earning trusts a further £874,300. London's Imperial College NHS Trust alone issued fines totalling £110,000.

Some 1,300 drivers were clamped – 651 of them at one trust, St George's in Tooting, south London. It said most of the affected cars were owned by staff.

Kevin O'Regan, services director at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which has several car parks, said: "All surplus income we receive from car parks is always reinvested in NHS services here in Sheffield.

"We have not increased car parking charges for two years at any of our five hospitals and in addition we provide a free shuttle bus between the hospital sites, free drop off zones for accident and emergency patients and mums in labour as well as free parking for cancer and renal dialysis patients."

The Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust said its charges – the highest in England at £6 for two hours – reflected "the need to deter shoppers and other casual users and the high cost of providing car parking in London".

Luton and Dunstable Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said it had increased charges "with reluctance", adding: "The next few years are going to be very challenging for all publicly funded organisations."

A spokesman for West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust said: "We have to make difficult decisions regarding how what we spend our constrained resources. It is our duty to ensure that we focus these resources on patients."

The Department of Health said: "NHS organisations have the autonomy to make decisions locally and should work with their local communities to set appropriate policies."

All the trusts making a profit said money was reinvested in treating patients.

Trafford Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs the Trafford General Hospital in Manchester, last year became the first of its kind in England

We have had this argument before. (see my posts #146 & #166) It is near an impossibility in my neck of the woods to use public transport  to get to a our hospital and if you do you need to set out the day before. Wales and Scotland do not charge for hospital car parking.

Agree with Keith, I'm sure "they" are in collusion to make people use the hospital car park so they make money.  In Cambridge, before we moved, many people used to park at the Park & Ride car park and, with the knowledge and advice of staff who knew the bus service was unreliable, walked the 10-15 minutes to Addenbrookes -  so what was the council proposing?  Make a charge for parking in additiona to the bus fare to prevent people from doing this.   Again a hospital with a massive catchment area covering a mostly rural population (other than Cambridge itself) with buses a rare & endangered species.

It has been successive governments who have decided to centralise patient care and health services in large, often inaccessible hospitals, and now encourage said hospitals to profiteer from patients needing to access the services. To my mind, this is a "charge" for accessing health care (and this is not a plea for petrol or bus fares to be paid, that's been thrown back in the past at those of us who oppose hospital parking charges), it's an expression of outrage that those needing medical care are being charged excessively to access it if they need to travel by car.   It is also a fact that many hospital appointments run late, often very late, meaning that unless it's a "pay on exit" car park, and very few if any are, people end up putting perhaps more than necessary into the machine to cover themselves, also patients are sometimes sent to other areas, such as for a blood test, after the appointment so this can cost a fortune.