The scandal of hospital parking charges...

Forgetting the fact fees are exorbitant....I've read disturbing stories of relatives missing their loved ones final moments through re-filling the meter...

Looking at 2/2.50 an hour in some places..


Personally speaking coins for the slot aren't always prevalent in one's mind when your Wife's water breaks or your kid is screaming in pain..

Let's stop this nonsense....Losing a loved one or seeing one in pain is enough without having the pee taken..

Hospital parking should be free..period....or at the least a minimal charge for the day...

Million and millions made out of people's misery....and it ain't right..

Standard UKIP common-sense policy.

Where would we be without UKIP !!

Are there any Hospitals out there where you have to pay before you park, from experience they're mostly pay upon leaving, it is scandalous you have to pay but your argument is a bit airy fairy.

Visited my mother in law in Macclesfield hospital last year and had to pay and display....The stories i've read are the same...

Nothing airy fairy at all.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUFJmMQpGHs

The Tories hard at work.

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:Where would we be without UKIP !!

No EU referendum for a start!

If they were free, people would park for work, shopping etc.

Hammersmith harrier wrote:Are there any Hospitals out there where you have to pay before you park, from experience they're mostly pay upon leaving, it is scandalous you have to pay but your argument is a bit airy fairy.

North Middlesex UH, from memory, which is a biggy. Think they do have pay-by-phone or similar though, which removes the need for topping up etc.

Scottrf wrote:If they were free, people would park for work, shopping etc.

And just take the p!ss in general, basically.

Scottrf wrote:If they were free, people would park for work, shopping etc.

That's just conjecture....

What isn't conjecture is that hospital car parking fees are ripping people off and an inconvenience for worried families with other things on their mind..

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:

Scottrf wrote:If they were free, people would park for work, shopping etc.

That's just conjecture....

It's obvious.

With you on this one Truss. They're generally a cash cow and not a very subtle one at that. My wife and I spent ~14 months (FFS!) with our newborn twins in a hospital paed ICU and we were parked there nearly every day for at least 8 hours a day. Eventually, they made some special dispensation but not before we'd paid loads.

Scottrf wrote:If they were free, people would park for work, shopping etc.

That's a lazy reason not to look at making it free. Should be easy to stop that.

How? Time limits??

Get your ticket 'stamped' by a Dr?

Old man has to pay everytime. Few years back he was on a 28 day course of radiotherapy, it soon tots up.

navyblueshorts wrote:With you on this one Truss. They're generally a cash cow and not a very subtle one at that. My wife and I spent ~14 months (FFS!) with our newborn twins in a hospital paed ICU and we were parked there nearly every day for at least 8 hours a day. Eventually, they made some special dispensation but not before we'd paid loads.

Scottrf wrote:If they were free, people would park for work, shopping etc.

That's a lazy reason not to look at making it free. Should be easy to stop that.

Then you'd have to use hospital time and funds to police it. Prices should be lower certainly and maybe waived in the case of a designated carer/s such as yourself but making it free and policing it using hospital funds (or not policing it - therefore using valuable spaces by inconsiderate b*stards) are both wrong.

As said in the link I posted above, designated carers not having to pay hospital parking fees was due to be debated in the commons last year. It was filibustered by Philip Davies MP. What a despicable human being.

Yeah just saw it, what a pr*ck

Filibustering is a cowardly thing..

TopHat24/7 wrote:How? Time limits??

Get your ticket 'stamped' by a Dr?

ShahenshahG wrote:Then you'd have to use hospital time and funds to police it. Prices should be lower certainly and maybe waived in the case of a designated carer/s such as yourself but making it free and policing it using hospital funds (or not policing it - therefore using valuable spaces by inconsiderate b*stards) are both wrong.

I'm not an IT specialist but how hard can it be to set up something where those legitimately at hospital have their charge waived/voided?? I have an appointment in Feb at a hospital and I chose the clinic via the NHS online booking system. What's to stop, for example, them being able to generate a printable, bar-coded ticket when I book, that I can scan (only on the day of my appointment) for exit when leaving the car park on the day I attend?
There's got to be shed loads of ways of doing this sort of thing. Truth is, hospital parking is an underhand way of NHS Trusts getting extra cash from vulnerable people who're a captive market and have little choice in many instances.

navyblueshorts wrote:

TopHat24/7 wrote:How? Time limits??

Get your ticket 'stamped' by a Dr?

ShahenshahG wrote:Then you'd have to use hospital time and funds to police it. Prices should be lower certainly and maybe waived in the case of a designated carer/s such as yourself but making it free and policing it using hospital funds (or not policing it - therefore using valuable spaces by inconsiderate b*stards) are both wrong.

I'm not an IT specialist but how hard can it be to set up something where those legitimately at hospital have their charge waived/voided?? I have an appointment in Feb at a hospital and I chose the clinic via the NHS online booking system. What's to stop, for example, them being able to generate a printable, bar-coded ticket when I book, that I can scan (only on the day of my appointment) for exit when leaving the car park on the day I attend?
There's got to be shed loads of ways of doing this sort of thing. Truth is, hospital parking is an underhand way of NHS Trusts getting extra cash from vulnerable people who're a captive market and have little choice in many instances.

Again I don't disagree, i've already said they should waive the fee for designated carer/s and/or staff and set the fee low for everyone else. I'm not an I.T specialist either but I did start work in security in and around car parks when I was 17 and as I went up the ranks started getting involved in meetings/cost and rules for security related issues such as access control, fire safety, first aid and other HSE issues and only this June moved away from all that into working security for a medical firm. In all the meetings policing and maintenance costs for even a smallish car park ran into hundreds of thousands of pounds, the I.T systems were unreliable and the equipment prone to failure. Then there were camera costs, survey costs, lighting costs, sign costs. It's just not feasible to have them for free. Keep them as they are but lower the price to minimum or waive them for certain people.

I work a lot with large scale IT contracts, and I an assure you that having a system such as that would cost a Sh*t load, to develop, implement, maintain let alone regulate and keep the security safe.

Suppose that's the thing that's always overlooked - headline grabbers focus on "Hospital Makes £2m pa from Car Park Charges" rather than "Hospital has £2m pa revenue from car pak charges, less £750k maintenance & policing costs, £150k payroll and £50k general overheads".

rick_dagless wrote:I work a lot with large scale IT contracts, and I an assure you that having a system such as that would cost a Sh*t load, to develop, implement, maintain let alone regulate and keep the security safe.

How much would a "Sh*t load" be in this context? Possibly says more about current IT than anything else...

TopHat24/7 wrote:Suppose that's the thing that's always overlooked - headline grabbers focus on "Hospital Makes £2m pa from Car Park Charges" rather than "Hospital has £2m pa revenue from car pak charges, less £750k maintenance & policing costs, £150k payroll and £50k general overheads".

That's a fair point. Someone has to pay for it. I blame the Government.

navyblueshorts wrote:

TopHat24/7 wrote:Suppose that's the thing that's always overlooked - headline grabbers focus on "Hospital Makes £2m pa from Car Park Charges" rather than "Hospital has £2m pa revenue from car pak charges, less £750k maintenance & policing costs, £150k payroll and £50k general overheads".

That's a fair point. Someone has to pay for it. I blame the Government.

I blame civic dishonesty.

TopHat24/7 wrote:

navyblueshorts wrote:

TopHat24/7 wrote:Suppose that's the thing that's always overlooked - headline grabbers focus on "Hospital Makes £2m pa from Car Park Charges" rather than "Hospital has £2m pa revenue from car pak charges, less £750k maintenance & policing costs, £150k payroll and £50k general overheads".

That's a fair point. Someone has to pay for it. I blame the Government.

I blame civic dishonesty.

Nah. Government is far better. Rip monies from budgets and then say someone still has to make ends meet while blaming the same someone when blowback is coming from the peed off public. I suppose I have to hand it to them.

navyblueshorts wrote:

TopHat24/7 wrote:

navyblueshorts wrote:

TopHat24/7 wrote:Suppose that's the thing that's always overlooked - headline grabbers focus on "Hospital Makes £2m pa from Car Park Charges" rather than "Hospital has £2m pa revenue from car pak charges, less £750k maintenance & policing costs, £150k payroll and £50k general overheads".

That's a fair point. Someone has to pay for it. I blame the Government.

I blame civic dishonesty.

Nah. Government is far better. Rip monies from budgets and then say someone still has to make ends meet while blaming the same someone when blowback is coming from the peed off public. I suppose I have to hand it to them.

Or maybe it wouldn't be an issue if people could be trusted to behave responsibly.

TopHat24/7 wrote:

navyblueshorts wrote:

TopHat24/7 wrote:

navyblueshorts wrote:

TopHat24/7 wrote:Suppose that's the thing that's always overlooked - headline grabbers focus on "Hospital Makes £2m pa from Car Park Charges" rather than "Hospital has £2m pa revenue from car pak charges, less £750k maintenance & policing costs, £150k payroll and £50k general overheads".

That's a fair point. Someone has to pay for it. I blame the Government.

I blame civic dishonesty.

Nah. Government is far better. Rip monies from budgets and then say someone still has to make ends meet while blaming the same someone when blowback is coming from the peed off public. I suppose I have to hand it to them.

Or maybe it wouldn't be an issue if people could be trusted to behave responsibly.

Are you talking about parking being abused by those who have no business at a hospital? Or something else?

navyblueshorts wrote:

TopHat24/7 wrote:

navyblueshorts wrote:

TopHat24/7 wrote:

navyblueshorts wrote:

TopHat24/7 wrote:Suppose that's the thing that's always overlooked - headline grabbers focus on "Hospital Makes £2m pa from Car Park Charges" rather than "Hospital has £2m pa revenue from car pak charges, less £750k maintenance & policing costs, £150k payroll and £50k general overheads".

That's a fair point. Someone has to pay for it. I blame the Government.

I blame civic dishonesty.

Nah. Government is far better. Rip monies from budgets and then say someone still has to make ends meet while blaming the same someone when blowback is coming from the peed off public. I suppose I have to hand it to them.

Or maybe it wouldn't be an issue if people could be trusted to behave responsibly.

Are you talking about parking being abused by those who have no business at a hospital? Or something else?

All sorts.

Re your funding cuts point, you think hospitals have only being charging serious cash since 2015? Or a few years earlier. Has been going on most of this century.

TopHat24/7 wrote:

navyblueshorts wrote:

TopHat24/7 wrote:

navyblueshorts wrote:

TopHat24/7 wrote:

navyblueshorts wrote:

TopHat24/7 wrote:Suppose that's the thing that's always overlooked - headline grabbers focus on "Hospital Makes £2m pa from Car Park Charges" rather than "Hospital has £2m pa revenue from car pak charges, less £750k maintenance & policing costs, £150k payroll and £50k general overheads".

That's a fair point. Someone has to pay for it. I blame the Government.

I blame civic dishonesty.

Nah. Government is far better. Rip monies from budgets and then say someone still has to make ends meet while blaming the same someone when blowback is coming from the peed off public. I suppose I have to hand it to them.

Or maybe it wouldn't be an issue if people could be trusted to behave responsibly.

Are you talking about parking being abused by those who have no business at a hospital? Or something else?

All sorts.

Re your funding cuts point, you think hospitals have only being charging serious cash since 2015? Or a few years earlier.  Has been going on most of this century.

"All sorts" is a big vague and hard to comment on. Of course I know hospitals have been charging since at least as far back as 2000. It may not have been the original reason to introduce parking charges (may just have been some money-grabbing ex-private sector administrator) but my point was trying to be that if Government don't stump up enough money for the service they tell us we're getting, the hospital probably feels obliged to get it somehow and charging to park may well be a part of that.

navyblueshorts wrote:

TopHat24/7 wrote:

navyblueshorts wrote:

TopHat24/7 wrote:

navyblueshorts wrote:

TopHat24/7 wrote:

navyblueshorts wrote:

TopHat24/7 wrote:Suppose that's the thing that's always overlooked - headline grabbers focus on "Hospital Makes £2m pa from Car Park Charges" rather than "Hospital has £2m pa revenue from car pak charges, less £750k maintenance & policing costs, £150k payroll and £50k general overheads".

That's a fair point. Someone has to pay for it. I blame the Government.

I blame civic dishonesty.

Nah. Government is far better. Rip monies from budgets and then say someone still has to make ends meet while blaming the same someone when blowback is coming from the peed off public. I suppose I have to hand it to them.

Or maybe it wouldn't be an issue if people could be trusted to behave responsibly.

Are you talking about parking being abused by those who have no business at a hospital? Or something else?

All sorts.

Re your funding cuts point, you think hospitals have only being charging serious cash since 2015? Or a few years earlier.  Has been going on most of this century.

"All sorts" is a big vague and hard to comment on. Of course I know hospitals have been charging since at least as far back as 2000. It may not have been the original reason to introduce parking charges (may just have been some money-grabbing ex-private sector administrator) but my point was trying to be that if Government don't stump up enough money for the service they tell us we're getting, the hospital probably feels obliged to get it somehow and charging to park may well be a part of that.

Not that I agree, but the transfer of a small modicum of the funding pain to those who make greatest use, isn't the worst idea in the world.

Then again, I support tuition fees for similar reasons.

TopHat24/7 wrote:Not that I agree, but the transfer of a small modicum of the funding pain to those who make greatest use, isn't the worst idea in the world.

Then again, I support tuition fees for similar reasons.

Maybe, but it's not a 'modicum' really for the chronically ill or their family who're visiting when it's >£10/day to park. Also, it's probably preying on many who have most need of the NHS but are least able to suffer this 'modicum of funding pain'.
How about we scale the parking charges depending on the car/Chelsea tractor that one turns up in?

It is a modicum compared to the entire national health budget. Pennies, in fact.

Though I think the scrapping of free or reduced rate parking for primary carers is another unpleasant decision I dislike that's been made by this gov't.

Would fully support scaled charges, to reply to your flippancy, however it wouldn't get anywhere - have you seen the average hospital car park/A&E waiting room/GP waiting room??

I was only being the teensiest bit flippant. You're right though, it wouldn't help much.

The charging may only be a modicum cf. the NHS budget, but perhaps not cf. the budget of the OAP on state pension who's perhaps visiting his chronically ill wife etc but I get the impression we actually agree on that.