Hospital Car Park Charges

£3 minimum for us here. Most visits finish up at £5 - £7 because of waiting times. Of the wall! If you were a spouse supporting your wife through labour you could clock up a fortune!

In Scotland we can park at hospitals free of charge where there is a dedicated car park. I rather took this for granted until my DD who lives in Warwickshire was giving birth to my DGD and my DSIL ran up a parking bill of over £30 which they can ill afford. She told me that she had to pay parking charges for all of her appointments at the hospital. We were charged £5 for an hours visit. Why so unreasonably expensive? What about people waiting for hours in A&E?
Surely hospitals can have a system which exempts genuine patients and their visitors from being charged at all. It seems that everyone is being punished for the few unthinking idiots who would use the hospital car park for shopping trips etc or is it that the money will go into the hospital coffers?
So Rosequartz, you are not being unreasonable. Something needs to be done about this.

I am cross, as well, about those MPs who were filibustering - unless, of course, they are going to bring forward another proposed bill to abolish car parking in England altogether!

I would be ashamed if I lived in one of their constituencies and I would not be voting for them in the next election unless they could give good reason for their actions.

In our local hospital it is 1.20 an hour to park, however when I had chemo I had an exemption certificate. The problem is that many people would leave their cars in the hospital park for free all day if they could so a charge is to put people off.

The charge is to make shedloads of money for the car park operators.

Why on earth would anyone want to leave their car in a hospital car park and then walk a very long way to wherever they need to be?

When DH has a Haematology appointment it is in the Macmillan Unit at our local hospital and they stamp your carpark ticket so it is free. As the clinics always overrun, this is a concession worth having!! For everything else it is £2.50 an hour

No chance of even getting a parking space at the Royal Free (big hospital, tiny car park and no on street parking except for residents with permits) so it's train to London and taxis , usually £50-60 for the two of us to get him to a clinic appointment

If anyone parked at our hospital to go shopping, they`d have a long trudge back with their bags, it`s about a mile from the centre of town. When my husband was in hospital at the beginning of this year (one of several stays) for 10 weeks, it cost our family a small fortune for parking. One of my gripes is that it`s £1.40 for the first hour, then it jumps to £3.40 after that, till 4 hours, when it jumps up again, but why can`t there be a 2 hour charge, especially for when people just over-run from the hour?

My local hospital car park is quite close to a tube station which is why car perking was introduced but now that it is run by private operators the cost is unreasonable. I do not think that there are exemptions eg for somebody having chemo.

I never park there now because of the cost. I have a blue badge but there are so few spaces that I do not bother. I ask a friend to drive me there using my car and I then ring him when I am ready to be picked up. The alternative, which works is me driving to a convenient bus stop and then it is 2 buses to the local which is around 3 miles away.

It annoys me that not one penny of the income from the parking charges goes to the hospital - it all goes to a private parking company.

I had the most horrendous time when my late Grandma was in hospital. I was there everyday for over 6 weeks. Our hospital has one of those vile "parking eye" systems where you are watched by loads of cameras entering and leaving the car park and you have to key in your registration number before you pay and park. one day I accidentally missed the first letter of my registration number ( the rest was exactly right) and I was fined £70 for not paying to park even though I did and I had the ticket as proof (albeit with the first letter missing). Another time I bought a pass for a weeks parking and the automated system read back and entirely wrong location from where I was parked ( the machines have location numbers) I called them back (at premium rate what else) only to be told that I had better pay again or I ran the risk of being fined. I had to telephone my DH who was working in the next town to bring me some money as I didn't have any more with me. Parking eye later admitted they had made "a mistake". No apology though and no refund. I cannot tell you how much I hate this company and the way they deliberately cash in on honest people's misfortunes.

I'm not sure you're right there Luckygirl . Our local hospital get a percentage of everything made in parking charges and fines.

When hubby was in ICU, the nurses told us that they have to pay as well, AND take their chances on finding a parking space, only the doctors don`t have to pay.

Quite often the parking company is owned by the PFI contractor.
Another thing about Philip Davies is that he claims parking charges on expenses, so the tax payer pays his charges.

I visited my mother in law in the new Cramlington hospital. There was no parking charge because the machines had not been put up, but it will be/is £1 per day. That's good because it's an A&E hospital.
Unfortunately, they did not expect quite so many people to arrive by car. There were three large car parks, only one for visitors, the other two for staff. The staff ones were only half full, and the visitor one was full. I had to park on the pavement, like quite a few other cars. When I came out, there were security men putting tickets on windscreens. Fortunately I was at the other end of the carpark!

Parking is free in my part of South Wales although until it was brought in we did pay a sliding scale to park, patients and staff alike ( I work 2 days in the NHS) However in Cardiff which is in another county nearby the big teaching hospital there charges everyOne for parking and when my friend and I visited my god-daughter there it cost a packet.

Our local hospital has a weekly season ticket - parking at a reduced price - if you have to go everyday.
When I worked at a local university I had to pay a weekly charge to park with no guarantee of a space. I'm not sure why nurses should expect to park for free.

First 30 minutes free here but then extortionate charges. Other than to collect someone who has been discharged and actually waiting to go not sure who accesses a hospital for just 30 minutes we average 2-3 hours.

Free for the first 15 minutes, then 1.20 an hour, with £12 maximum charge. There are concessions, e.g. discounts if you are attending a course of treatment for 3 or more days in a week. Also free parking for resident parents of children in hospital, or babies in NICU, for relatives of critically ill or end of life patients, for blood donors.
There is also a weekly rate, which is heavily discounted. I wish I'd known about this when my DD was in for five days after her C-section - I spent most of every day with her and my DH came in separately for an hour or so each day. We clocked up a fortune in parking fees!!
Yes, there is a problem with people using the car park for free and going off elsewhere - the hospital may be a good walk from the town but it is on a bus route (as most hospitals are) and would serve as a very handy free park and ride service!

Indinana That sound very reasonable to me. What sort of area is your hospital in?
Here it is 20 mins free then £3 for 4hrs which is totally unfair. I don't mind paying by the hour but that is all or nothing.
This local hospital is on the edge of a town with countryside all around. It is not as if any of the parking might be used by people not using the hospital.

Indinana Oops! I should have read your whole post. I was outraged at how sensible your parking was.

Alea does you husband get DLA or Attendance Allowance?

No, nelliemoser

Here in Colchester there is a Country Park car park a short walk from the hospital that charges £2 for up to 4 hours, it is double that in the hospital car park and spaces are hard to find. There is a new park and ride 5 minutes drive away that does not stop at the hospital but goes straight past - sensible? We are lucky that there is a bus door to door from our house.

When DD was in Chelmsford hospital for a week after birth of DGS it cost them a fortune in parking even with a special ticket for in patients. We know the area and parked on the street 5 minutes walk away.

I don't think free hospital parking is possible but maybe a uniform charge throughout the NHS would make sense. A way of paying that does not involve scrabbling for change, having to guess how long you are going to be or running around to top up the ticket would be most welcome.

At my local hospital it really irritates me that we have to pay any time during the 24 hours. I do not understand why it cannot be free after maybe 6pm. If one is parking at 2am it is usually because a friend or relative is in A&E and one never knows how many hours one may be parking for so the cost can be horrendous.

Is anyone living in the constituencies of the MPs mentioned in the OP?

Unless, as I mentioned, they have another motive for filibustering ie they have a better plan they wish to bring to the House for abolishing hospital car parking charges altogether, then I think what they did was at best questionable.

Philip Davies: Shipley - Your interests not self-interest
Christopher Chope: Christchurch - ?
David Nuttall: Bury North - I speak my mind and will continue to be on your side

If TheyWorkForYou what were they up to?