Hospital car parking campaign - we need your help

Less than one minute read time.

FormerMember

5 Jan 2010

You may have seen our hospital car parking campaign in the news over the last few weeks and we need your help to make the government listen. We have a game for you to play - Warden Brown - please play the game, sign our pledge and forward this on to friends, family and colleagues. The more support we get the more persuasive we can be. With your help our campaign has really made headway and this is a great opportunity for us all to end this tax on illness. We hope that you like it!

In response to our campaign Health Secretary Andy Burnham MP has begun an 8 week consultation to decide who should be exempt from hospital car parking charges. We will be responding to this consultation and it would be really helpful if you could leave your stories and comments on this blog about your experience with hospital car parking charges, good and bad, as this will assist with our response. We will keep you updated on this.

So, what is your experience with hospital car parking charges?

FormerMember over 15 years ago

The bit I can't understand is why some health care trusts in England do help with parking and yet others can't.

Gloucester and Cheltenham all have free parking for Blue Badge holders (At Gloucester this is providing you can park in one of the disabled parking bays). Cheltenham, where the regions oncology centre is based, issue parking permits to oncology patients to allow free parking for the duration of treatment.
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sue G over 15 years ago

It must be where you live as in Worcester the parking charge is £1 all day for chemo patients, blue badge holders free and Cheltenham where I had RT as bad fairy says was free.

It should be the same all over England surely.

Sue x x x
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FormerMember over 15 years ago

Parking is not free in Scottish hospitals. Neither are prescriptions free here either.

When I had a bone scan done I had to travel to a hospital 12 miles away and had to spend most of the day at the hospital. I have a blue badge, but this did not allow free parking, so I had to pay to park at the hospital for the whole day.

It's a disgrace that people in such a vulnerable position are being exploited in this way, especially considering that most people are unable to work during treatment, therefore have a lower income.
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FormerMember over 15 years ago

It does seem madness that there are different charges whereever you go. My initial check up hospital has a flat rate of £1.00, Aintree hospital where I went for chemo, bloods and check ups is a flat fee of £2.00 but Clatterbridge for radio was completely free.

No rhyme of reason?
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FormerMember over 15 years ago

I'm currently undergoing treatment for Myeloma at the Countess of Chester Hospital and for Cancer Patients you can ask for a car park pass that allows you to have free parking during treatment. You have to leave a £20 deposit for the card which gets returned to you once you hand the card back in.

They don't advertise this though, so it is something that you have to request information about.

If I had to pay for the number of visits and the length of time that I have been in the Hospital each visit, I dread to think how expensive it would have been.

I am 100% behind all hospitals abandoning the extra burden of charges as well as dealing with serious illnesses.

We have enough to worry about without having to worry about how we can afford to go to the hospital.
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