Hospital car park charges really are a tax on the sick
I don't know about you but I have always felt it wrong that hospitals charge visitors and patients to park their cars in their car parks. The BMA has today called for such schemes to be scrapped (at Welsh hospitals) claiming they are "a tax on the sick". Welsh Assembly Government figures show NHS trusts took £5.4m from car parking charges last year alone. The latest UK wide figure is that £95 million was raised by such schemes nation wide.
Government guidelines on car parking charges "strongly recommended" that NHS bodies introduce some kind of "season ticket" arrangement and allow free or reduced-price parking for patients with a long-term illness or those with serious conditions who require daily or regular treatment, and their prime visitors. The government has also suggested a weekly cap on parking charges at hospitals.
One option that needs urgently to be looked at is the provision of free hospital parking and help with travel costs for all cancer patients. The other option is to scrap the charges completely!
There would have to be some method of filtering out those who park there while shopping - some hospital car parks are too full at times for genuine patients or visitors to park.
Posted by: JohnH | February 29, 2008 at 07:37 PM