I know this one has been "worked over" before - if not on here, then "over there" - but it raises my blood pressure every time.
The headline is: "Hospitals earn millions from parking fines"
tiny.cc/xj992
Perhaps some public-spirited individual should attach stickers to the tariff signs saying, in essence, "You don't have to pay these outrageous charges - you are advised to defy any attempt to impose a penalty if you fail to pay."
I know there is the issue of clamping and, where this is happening, defiance is probably unwise. Let's just have a law to ban clamping as soon as possible. I realise also that some hospital car parks are administered by local councils, where defiance is illegal as well as pointless.
(The reasons this gets me going are memories of my father's and then my mother's lengthy stays in hospital, preceding the deaths of both, and the parking issues at the hospice where I now work, whose site we share with the local NHS hospital.)
Last edited by: ChrisPeugeot on Wed 9 Jun 10 at 15:12
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Sign I've seen at a hospital in Liverpool
No Parking - Ambulance access, offenders will be clamped.
or words to that effect, ridiculous idea, your cars in the way so we will clamp it.
Both Liverpool Women's Hospital and Alder Hey have most of their car park barrier controlled where you pay at a machine then put the ticket into the barrier on the way out.
But this annoys me, right next to A & E at Alder Hey is a pay and display area, just where you might park when in a hurry and very distracted.
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It's the same at Addenbrookes at Cambridge, you have to pay or you won't get the barrier lifted to get out.
It costs a fortune for petrol, then hospital parking too, when you have someone ill on a long term basis and quite honestly, at that time, launching another battle is the last thing on your mind.
Perhaps it's a good thing to talk about it now and try and do something, Chris.
Pat
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And St Peters in Chertsey. No pay, no exit.
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Forgot to mention, Alder Hey is free for the first 1/2 hour then £1.50 for up to 24 hours, so not too bad, but the pay and display section is £1.50 for 4 hours. When my daughter was admitted for an overnight stay after taking her to A & E I had parked in the pay and display and overstayed by about an hour. If it hadn't been for a helpful nurse I would have probably left the car there all night. The nurse had some very unkind words about the parking attendants.
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...The nurse had some very unkind words about the parking attendants...
Perhaps the nurse would like to work for nothing, then the NHS could afford to offer free parking.
Which is another way of saying that whatever you think of hospital parking charges, they are only likely to increase, because 'England plc' is skint.
(Neatly avoids mentioning Scotland, where I believe hozzie parking is free.)
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Chris it gets my blood boiling too. I actually started to take it up as a case a couple of years ago. When i had my bypass done, i realised the doctors,nurses in fact all the staff had to pay for the privelege of saving my life. Paying to park at the place they work. I had second thoughts. Why should i take this up when there all in unions and it is them who should take it up. I do understand staff get reduced rates to park.
However i will say my local hospital has not fined anyone, so what they are to do is put barriers up. You get a ticket on entry and pay to lift the barrier to get out.
yep i know the script about ppc's i am currently playing one along.
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"Paying to park at the place they work" is not that rare. I'm working with a major company in Swindon where there is no company car park except a few bays for the bigwigs who could afford to pay for parking more than most. Still, mustn't get their coiffured hair and shiny suits wet eh?
A working day's parking in the nearest public car park is almost £8.
Many small companies do not have enough parking for employees.
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>> Perhaps the nurse would like to work for nothing, then the NHS could afford to
>> offer free parking.
We already pay for the NHS, whether we need the services or not. I do not see why we have to pay again for parking when we need to be treated, or visit.
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It wasn't the cost of parking she objected to, it was how the attendants would ticket people for being a few mins over, bearing in mind this is right by the A&E of a children's hospital. Having said that I was an hour over and didn't get a ticket.
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This doesn't only happen in hospital carparks it happens everywhere. What about a bit of discrection eh.
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i remember staying alnight at the maternity whist the misses was having our youngen
we showed the car park attendant the new baby and he lifted the barrier gratis
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They're not all bad. I used to know the car park attendant at Bedford South Wing hospital, up to around 4-5 years ago. They introduced a Pay-and-Display system at around £1 an hour up to 4 hours then a flat £6 rate for up to 24hrs. If you failed to display a ticket the penalty notice under your wiper advised you to pay up what it should have cost, i.e. £1, £2, £3, £4 or £6 depending. None of those threatening punitive charges levied against vulnerable people there, I'm glad to say. I hope it's still the same today.
I left my car there in a bay marked "Emergency Drop-Off Only - 20 minutes maximum stay" for 8 hours once, from half past midnight to 8.30am. My excuse? It was one of three similar bays, right outside the entrance to the Delivery Suite... I'd arrived in a bit of a hurry and car parking was fairly low on my list of priorities at the time!
Last edited by: Dave_TD {P} on Wed 9 Jun 10 at 21:44
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Unlike most I'm happy to pay the charges at our local hospital (£2.60 up to 3hrs with roughly proportional charges above that). With the children and other issues we seem to have been there a good few times over the last 10yrs but I'm happy to pay the price of a drink for quality on-site parking.
15 years ago when it was either much cheaper or free (can't remember which) people commuting to London would park there and walk to the nearby train station so finding a space was a nightmare with all the surrounding roads being double yellows. Back then you had to allow up to 30 mins extra to find a space and folks were cruising round the car park already so it was always a competition for any space that was vacated.
For me that was far more stressful pre-appointment than paying the £2.60 now and walking to the hospital entrance in 30sec.
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I have been at Southampton General for a while, now in our 7th week. Mr Deepwith not behaving well and really testing the skills of various doctors/surgeons. It costs, heavily discounted for long stay, £30 a fortnight to park.
Charges appear to have made little difference to the queues which form every day to get in to the carpark.
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Sorry to hear of the medical problems of your other half. Hopefully, the skills of the medical staff are now producing beneficial results?
I really don't see why patients and close relatives cannot be allowed to park free - perhaps on production of an official authorisation issued by an appropriate person, rather like some supermarket car parks, where you have to pay unless you get your parking ticket stamped at the checkout.
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>> Charges appear to have made little difference to the queues which form every day to
>> get in to the carpark.
You wonder why the hale and able bodied queue when, at many sites they can park easily on adjacent public car parks. My mother was in Leicester RI earlier this year. Very easy to park over the road on the former Granby Halls site (except during Tigers matches!!). Lots of people waiting instead for space on the hospital park though it was admittedley cheaper.
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maybe these mindless yobs could be put to good use smashing up the parking meters.
then we don't have to pay and the local yobs are happy after having 'a fight with a parking meter'
Best solution all round then.
Right, home for tea and biscuits then. job done. he he
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NHS hospital car park "fines" - revenue - The Nut
