Hospital Car Park Charges

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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?

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

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?

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.

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 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.

£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!