Hospital Discrimination.

[CusCus]

I am rather disgusted to see that somebody should begrudge free parking for wheelchair users.

Life is harder and frequently more stressful and expensive for wheelchair users.

Giving free parking is the least that society can do to help level the playing field just a little; wheelchair users would much rather have the basic mobility levels to pay for the car park.

(Although it does massively wind me up when I see blue badge holders sprinting around the car park, but that's another rant entirely.....)

[forceten]

If you are regularly visiting somebody in hospital then if you save your receipts for the car park, when you get so many you take them into the car park desk and they give you a voucher to enable you to park for another 4 days free (I think..........I can check on this tonight when I go to visit my mum who has been in for 7 weeks!! and I am visiting her twice a day)

[Bonnyboy]

Originally Posted by lettie

Of course it is but just think of the staff who have to pay for the pleasure of going to work. Staff are no longer being issued with permits to get onto the staff area because there isn't enough spaces. They therefore have to park on the visitors area and pay £3.50, 5 days a week, just to go to work.

I knew hospital staff had to pay a few years back lettie, didn’t know if it was still the case so I didn’t mention it…it stinks, it really does

[steeljack]

Originally Posted by lettie

Of course it is but just think of the staff who have to pay for the pleasure of going to work. Staff are no longer being issued with permits to get onto the staff area because there isn't enough spaces. They therefore have to park on the visitors area and pay £3.50, 5 days a week, just to go to work.

Sorry lettie , but ....don't you think its your, or rather your unions negotiating commitees fault that you have to pay , surely these are the folks who negotiate your pay and conditions , suggest you ask your elected on-site union rep why this wasn't included in the last or previous contracts, I'm sure if enough people (e.g. all theatre RNs or x-ray techs) called in 'sick' on various random days the management would soon get the message .

[garinda]

Originally Posted by forceten

If you are regularly visiting somebody in hospital then if you save your receipts for the car park, when you get so many you take them into the car park desk and they give you a voucher to enable you to park for another 4 days free (I think..........I can check on this tonight when I go to visit my mum who has been in for 7 weeks!! and I am visiting her twice a day)

That's news to me. A relative of mine when to visit her dad every day to Blackburn Royal, for eighteen months, and had to pay the full amount.

[thomas.lee]

Originally Posted by CusCus

I am rather disgusted to see that somebody should begrudge free parking for wheelchair users.

Life is harder and frequently more stressful and expensive for wheelchair users.

Giving free parking is the least that society can do to help level the playing field just a little; wheelchair users would much rather have the basic mobility levels to pay for the car park.

(Although it does massively wind me up when I see blue badge holders sprinting around the car park, but that's another rant entirely.....)

Disabled people aren't necessarily wheelchair bound! You've clearly a lot to learn on the subject.

[WillowTheWhisp]

That is absolutely ludicrous.

[thomas.lee]

Originally Posted by WillowTheWhisp

That is absolutely ludicrous.

What is? lol

[Bonnyboy]

Originally Posted by thomas.lee

What is? lol

I was wondrin about that too

[Margaret Pilkington]

I worked at QPH(now RBH) from 1977-2002.....initially parking was free......but there was an awful lot of car crime.......mindless vandalism...windows broken......things stolen from Vehicles and vehicles stolen too.
Then the Hospital decided they would charge for parking, but they would plough the money back into the car parks....they employed site staff.....installed high power lighting (which made me feel a lot safer after coming off a late shift)....and latterly CCTV cameras.
The car crime dropped to almost zero.
The security staff who manned the car parks were pleasant and helpful.....would tell you if you had left your lights on(no coming off duty finding you had a flat battery)....and would help you in all kinds of circumstances.
So while at the start I begrudged paying in order for me to go to work, I came to see that I felt safer and felt that my vehicle was more secure....so in the end I accepted the charges.
In those days there wasn't the same volume of traffic wanting spaces and if you paid your monthly fee you knew you had somewhere safe to park.
If you don't like paying the fees then it is simple.......catch the bus. I think that is an equally expensive and time consuming occupation.
If you have a car, you know that Road tax, Insurance and parking charges are a fact of life....you have to live with it.

[cashman]

it may be a fact n ya have to live with it margaret, but i dont like it.

[thomas.lee]

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

I worked at QPH(now RBH) from 1977-2002.....initially parking was free......but there was an awful lot of car crime.......mindless vandalism...windows broken......things stolen from Vehicles and vehicles stolen too.
Then the Hospital decided they would charge for parking, but they would plough the money back into the car parks....they employed site staff.....installed high power lighting (which made me feel a lot safer after coming off a late shift)....and latterly CCTV cameras.
The car crime dropped to almost zero.
The security staff who manned the car parks were pleasant and helpful.....would tell you if you had left your lights on(no coming off duty finding you had a flat battery)....and would help you in all kinds of circumstances.
So while at the start I begrudged paying in order for me to go to work, I came to see that I felt safer and felt that my vehicle was more secure....so in the end I accepted the charges.
In those days there wasn't the same volume of traffic wanting spaces and if you paid your monthly fee you knew you had somewhere safe to park.
If you don't like paying the fees then it is simple.......catch the bus. I think that is an equally expensive and time consuming occupation.
If you have a car, you know that Road tax, Insurance and parking charges are a fact of life....you have to live with it.

The argument at hand though was not that a parking fee is in place, its that disabled users don't have to pay.

[Margaret Pilkington]

there are many places where disabled people do not have to pay for parking.
I would rather be able bodied and pay for my parking than be disabled and in a wheel chair.
Disabled people get a few 'perks'....but it still doesn't compensate them for the fact that they are disabled.......and just because a disability isn't visible doesn't mean that it doesn't exist.
I hope you are NEVER in the position of requiring disabled parking.

[Margaret Pilkington]

And my previous post (the long one) was really to supply some historical background rather than to argue the point....but I have some experience of the needs of the disabled, as my mother is in a wheelchair....and she would give up ALL of her disability rights to be able to walk about.

[Bonnyboy]

The NHS gets a large enough chunk of the taxes that this nation pays, the largest of all the public sectors I think. As a motorist, I do expect to pay Road Tax, insurance and get ripped off into the bargain with fuel taxes. I do not however expect the NHS to “take the Michael” when I or a member of my family are ill. Surely they are legally bound to give their patients/visitors/staff a safe environment from first setting foot on their property and in my opinion it should be done with the funds already provided to them.