Parking shouldn’t make a hospital visit worse

This is a major bug bear of mine, as I’ve spent a not inconsiderable amount of time at hospitals with various family members – two of whom have chronic conditions that mean this involvement has spanned decades. Planning public transport is fine, but sometimes people simply aren’t well enough to make the journey and need help getting to the hospital and the appointment. Visiting A&E unexpectedly in the middle of the night can mean you are still there at 8.30am the next day when rip-off parking prices simply add to the stress levels. My top tips: * Look for a nearby car park that is cheaper – hospital car parks can be the worst options * Time your visit so that you can park on single yellow lines * Parking on a meter on the road can also be cheaper than the hospital.

Two recent experiences of this first hand – one good, one bad.

Good experience – I regularly have to visit a relative who is seriously ill in The John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. Car parks are good and the cost – £1 for an hour – seems fair enough to me. What helps is that you don’t have to pay on the way in – only on the way out, so you pay only for the time you have actually been there and can get change from the hospital shop if you need it.

Bad experience – I drove myself up to my local A&E a few weeks ago after injuring my face. I was a bit freaked out by what I had done (so maybe shouldn’t have been driving) but getting to the A&E car park late at night only to be confronted with a pay and display machine was not what I wanted.

The machine was asking me to pay up front but at that point I had no idea how long I would be there (surprise, the queue to see a doctor was approx 3 hours!). Terrible customer service.

The attitude of my local hospital has changed from looking after staff in preference to visitors. The staff have now to park further away and not undercover. Now when you visit you still pay but at least your car is under cover and nearer the A & E

We in Glasgow have made 4 hours the maximum stay free. This still means medical staff running out to move cars!

Problem is that city cventre car parking is so expensive, park and rides overflowing by 7.30am, people use these hospital car parks as park and rides as the often lead onto a station or major bus route being hospitals!

Unfortunately, hospitals have been made into commercial organisations which need to pay their way. Over the last 20 years due to government policies, hospitals and their controllers PCTs have been saddled with huge financial costs through the use of PFI. Thus new facilities which under the old rules would have been paid for out of the public purse i.e. the Treasury, have to be paid for with borrowed money, usually at a rate that woud make most mortgage payers blinch. Until these debts are cleared, hospitals have to resort to all sorts of money-making ventures; car parking charges are just that, a way to reduce their crippling imposed debt.

It would be useful if Which? were to campaign actively against the use of PFI. Study the terms of PFI and you'll understand why it is one of the most expensive ways to pay for facilities.

I do appreciate that hospitals situated in town centres need to charge for parking – otherwise the facility would be open to abuse by shoppers, etc. However the Maidstone hospital on Hermitage Lane is far from any BR station, main road or major shopping location but they charge for parking which can only be for money-making purposes. I understand that hospitals need to pay their way but the administrators should realise that hospital visits – as either A&E patient or as a visitor – is very stressful and the worry about time on a parking meter cannot be helpful. This kind of stress causes frustration which must at times boil over against the staff. There must be a better way to raise funds.

Hospitals are not taking into account that some patients on an OPD appt needs to find a parking spot, then walk for long distances to and within the hospital. Then when the appt is over you have to retrace your steps and then pay for the privilege!! All the while in considerable pain. Fortunately my village has a help scheme, so I am driven there and taken home again. I have always felt as a retired nurse that a good way to save money is to remove the positions of the hundreds of managers that have crept into the NHS over the years.

I do hope that Which? doesn't back campaigns to make car-parks at hospitals free. Some motorists (and I speak as a motorist) seem to want everything to be tilted in their favour and are unwilling to pay a fair cost for their decision to drive to hospital. If their doctor considers that they need it, they can travel to hospital by patient ambulance; they could go by public transport; they could go by taxi; or they could go in their own private car and pay for their parking.
I agree that systems that require payment as you leave are fairer than those that ask you to estimate how long you'll be at the hospital; and I agree that those with chronic conditions that require frequent attendance should receive special consideration. Otherwise, I don't see why I, a user of public transport, should subsidise car-drivers yet again.