Hospital Disabled Parking Charges.

jambutty · 18-07-2007, 12:54

Some hospitals up and down the country are now considering charging a parking fee for Blue Badge holders.

Is there no end to the money grabbing philosophy of some hospital trusts?

cashman · 18-07-2007, 13:02

to be honest i dont believe there is a differance, patients,visitors, no-one should be charged in hospital car-parks,think i read somewhere a while back even staff get charged, if thats the case thats even worse.

Ianto.W. · 18-07-2007, 13:06

It is hard enough being disabled, without having to pay for the 'privilege' the, disabled person is more likely to need the hospitals services. These 'Trust' hospitals just seem to be a licence to print money for the funders.

cashman · 18-07-2007, 13:53

what i do when they ring me for consultant appointments etc, i choose Gisburn Park, its a nice drive n free parking, then if yer admitted it is in that hospital,so if anyone comes to see ya (free Parking) aint stuck for a couple of quid, but its my little protest at these ridiculous charges, an it sure makes me happy.

MargaretR · 18-07-2007, 14:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by cashman

what i do when they ring me for consultant appointments etc, i choose Gisburn Park, its a nice drive n free parking, then if yer admitted it is in that hospital,so if anyone comes to see ya (free Parking) aint stuck for a couple of quid, but its my little protest at these ridiculous charges, an it sure makes me happy.

I have looked at the website for Gisburn Park -- private ---BUPA---!!!!
Are you a secret pools winner Cashy?

cashman · 18-07-2007, 15:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by [email protected]

I have looked at the website for Gisburn Park -- private ---BUPA---!!!!
Are you a secret pools winner Cashy?

I WISH lol no but they do NHS operations at gisburn, when doc refers you, NHS rings you n you are given a choice, also they state how long the waiting list is (Gisburn has been shorter in my experiance) so i just choose them,usually there is about 4/5 hospitals to choose from,i chose em first time n was well impressed with em,so i always pick em now, n so far its always been 1 of the choices,hope that explains.

MargaretR · 18-07-2007, 15:43

I had surgery a couple of times in my 30's at Beardwood, but it was paid for by The Civil Service Sanatorium Society. The difference in standards between private and NHS was remarkable. Just having a private room is more condusive to recovery, and the food was good too - it all helps.

Busman747 · 18-07-2007, 15:54

Its ludicrous that charges should be made for disabled drivers at hospitals, in fact, I support cashmans statement that there should be NO charges! Trying to guess how long you are likely to be at the hospital to give a blood sample or perhaps an x ray is impossible - and in many hospitals, it is necessary to purchase a ticket BEFORE entering the hospital.

Most, (perhaps all?) hospitals use private firms to run the car parks so can hold their hands up and say: "now't to do with me" while collecting a fixed annual fee from the private company

jambutty · 18-07-2007, 16:47

It wouldn’t be so bad if after overstaying in these Pay and Display car parks you could ‘top up’ your ticket when you get back late. But you can’t and get a whacking fine on top for being late back. It’s just yet another form of stealth tax on the long suffering public.

All hospital parking should be free, especially for hospital staff.

Think of it this way. If it costs a member of the hospital staff £50 a week to park to go to work that money has to come from somewhere. So they get a pay rise to compensate. This in turn takes away money from patient care AND into the pocket of the private firm running the car park. Is that where the millions of extra funds to the NHS are going?

Mr Aleks · 18-07-2007, 18:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by jambutty

It wouldn’t be so bad if after overstaying in these Pay and Display car parks you could ‘top up’ your ticket when you get back late. But you can’t and get a whacking fine on top for being late back. It’s just yet another form of stealth tax on the long suffering public.

All hospital parking should be free, especially for hospital staff.

Think of it this way. If it costs a member of the hospital staff £50 a week to park to go to work that money has to come from somewhere. So they get a pay rise to compensate. This in turn takes away money from patient care AND into the pocket of the private firm running the car park. Is that where the millions of extra funds to the NHS are going?

If you over stay then you get fined. Everyone knows this so there is no excuse. And not being nasty but why should disabled people get it for free? My grandmother is registered as disable because of a dodgy arm she as but she parks and goes about her business fine.

Lilly · 18-07-2007, 18:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aleks

why should disabled people get it for free?.

It would cost them a fortune.They will probably be regular visitors to hospital for one thing or another if they're disabled and they are on disability benefit because they can't work so do not have a lot of money to pay all the charges they would accrue from all their trips to hospital.

Mr Aleks · 18-07-2007, 18:21

Well they have the badges dont they to use. So as far as i know they do get it free.

Lilly · 18-07-2007, 18:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aleks

Well they have the badges dont they to use. So as far as i know they do get it free.

Yes,they do get it free at the moment but, like Jambutty said in the first post in this thread,they are considering introducing a charge for blue badge holders.

WillowTheWhisp · 18-07-2007, 18:57

I think you've missed the point a bit Aleks.

I agree that all hospital parking should be free. Not all people who need regular hospital visits are registered as disabled and entitled to the badge even if that is free for now. As has already been said people who need hospital treatment tend not to be earning and are therefore less able to afford all the parking charges.

As for 'If you over stay then you get fined. Everyone knows this so there is no excuse.' - that's all very well but if you have to pay in advance and you have an appointment for 9am this is not as simple as it may seem.

You estimate an hour - after all it's only a blood sample you should be in and out in minutes. So you park at 8:50 and report for duty.

You are asked to sit and wait. The receptionist tells you that the person who does the bloods will be along shortly. 'Shortly' passes, as does 9:00 and 9:15 - you ask at the desk.

You are told that you will be seen in appointment time order. You check with other people who are waiting and find that they too have an appointment for 9am. It is now 9:30. The 'bloods woman' arrives. The bloods woman disappears into another room.

She calls you in 'Hurrah!' you think, 'I will get back to the car before my ticket expires.'

Oh foolish, foolish optimist. It is now 9:45. You follow blood woman and she asks you to sit on another seat. You sit. You wait. You notice it is now 10am and your parking ticket has expired.

Blood woman reappears and you start to rise from your seat but she walks past you and calls someone else in from the main waiting area. At last she turns to you and asks you to 'come through'. You follow her. You notice it is 10:05. You mutter under your breath about parking fines.

You sit with arm in a clamp whilst countess Dracula extracts assorted blood samples. You notice it is 10:15. She releases you from bondage. You think perhaps if you sprint back to car park you will still manage to get out without a fine.

Blood woman asks you to 'wait a moment outside' - you wonder what is immediately noticably wrong with your blood as you wait in trepidation, yet still able to notice that it is now 10:30.

Bloody woman reappears with a smile and tells you you can go - not a word about what may have been the reason for staying. You notice it is 10:45.

You get lost on your way out of the hospital. You notice it is 11:00am.

You finally get back to car. You have a parking fine!

grego · 18-07-2007, 19:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by jambutty

It wouldn’t be so bad if after overstaying in these Pay and Display car parks you could ‘top up’ your ticket when you get back late. But you can’t and get a whacking fine on top for being late back. It’s just yet another form of stealth tax on the long suffering public.

All hospital parking should be free, especially for hospital staff.

Think of it this way. If it costs a member of the hospital staff £50 a week to park to go to work that money has to come from somewhere. So they get a pay rise to compensate. This in turn takes away money from patient care AND into the pocket of the private firm running the car park. Is that where the millions of extra funds to the NHS are going?

I think that parking should be free for blue badge holders, I work at Royal Blackburn its costs around £7.80 a month for staff to park, thats a full time permit, not that bad really. Your comment about staff getting a rise to cover parking charges made me laugh, we are lucky if we get a rise that covers inflation. The car park is run by a private firm they fined me last month for illegal parking (not in a proper space) £65, £35 if paid before 14 days or £105 if I refused to pay, thats how they treat staff, however I appealed and was reminded of the terms and conditions and let off fortunately