Do hospital parking costs make you sick?

Are we getting ripped off by hospitals charging extortionate parking fees? More than 3-quarters (79%) of UK hospitals now charge for parking and many are now raking in more than £1 million a year.

And whilst most will agree the NHS needs all the funding it can get, it looks like motorists are as soon as much more getting used as a cash-cow to assist make up shortfalls in funding.

Sick bays

A series of Freedom of Information (FoI) requests from the Everyday Express to Well being Trusts across England have revealed that as a lot of as 74 hospitals raked in more than £500,000 in parking costs in the course of the 2013/14 economic year, although a additional 46 produced a lot more than £1million.

And although these figures want placing into point of view – there are about 2,300 hospitals across the UK, a quarter of hospitals in England do not charge, and charges have been abolished completely in Scotland and Wales – it does seem that some hospitals see on-site parking as a funds-generating chance.

Nottingham City Hospital, for instance, charges £4 per hour. That is twice as significantly as the city centre!

If you venture to London’s Royal Free Hospital, meanwhile, the parking charges may lead you to feel the institution’s name is somewhat ironic. They variety from £3 per hour, to £72 per day, to a trip-to- A&E-inducing £504 per week.

The FoI requests discovered 2013/14’s most significant earner was Birmingham’s Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust, which created just under £ 4million in parking fees, closely followed by the University Hospitals in Leicester, which pulled in just more than £3.5 million.

The parking charges lottery

It seems your hospital’s catchment location can have a enormous bearing on how much you spend to park there, as the infographic from MacMillan Cancer Help, highlights…

…but is something being completed about it?

MPs examine ‘rip off’ charges

In 2010 the government published a consultation on bringing an finish to hospital car parking charges, concluding it should be up to NHS regional trusts to choose no matter whether they charge for parking. It also recommended that charges should be proportionate and concessions must be obtainable.

But the suggestions look to have fallen upon deaf ears in some NHS trusts, though, prompting Robert Halfon, Conservative MP for Harlow, to raise the concern in the Commons as soon as far more. The most recent enquiries discovered it is not just individuals and visitors who are footing the bill: hospital staff are paying up to £200 a month just to park at work.

The situation is now being examined by Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, who stated:  “I do share your [Robert Halfon’s] issues that the automobile parking charges in some hospitals are just as well higher.

“I recognize hospitals have economic pressures, as do numerous components of the NHS, but I am satisfied to talk to you at another stage about what specifically can be carried out on this concern.”

These ‘financial pressures’ consist of the estimated £200 million a year the NHS would drop by providing free of charge parking at all hospitals across England. But certainly it shouldn’t be down to hospital staff, patients and visitors to subsidise the overall health service through inflated car parking costs?

What do you feel? Let us know…

Do hospital parking costs make you sick?