Burnham making vague commitments on hospital parking - Mulholland
September 30, 2009 10:28 PM
Commenting on Andy Burnham's announcement of free car parking for in-patients at NHS hospitals, Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Spokesperson Greg Mulholland said:
"The amount of money the NHS is making from car-parking charges is staggering. Many hospitals are essentially operating a tax on the sick.
"But it's difficult to take Andy Burnham's pledge seriously when he has completely failed to say where any of the money needed to pay for this would come from.
"This announcement hasn't been thought through. The sad reality is that many Trusts will simply increase car parking charges for outpatients and hard-working doctors and nurses to cover their shortfalls.
"Rather than making vague unfunded commitments, Andy Burnham would be better off making sure that all hospitals actually comply with the current rules by offering discounts to staff and free parking to patients with chronic illnesses."
ENDS
Notes to Editors
1. The Liberal Democrats released research earlier this year which revealed that NHS hospitals collected £112m in total from car parking charges in 2007/08. The information was released following a FOI to the Department of Health. The information is provided by Trusts on a voluntary basis - 267 hospitals provided information. The original response is available here: http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/FreedomOfInformation/Freedomofinformationpublicationschemefeedback/FOIreleases/DH_103012 <<a href="http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/FreedomOfInformation/Freedomofinformationpublicationschemefeedback/FOIreleases/DH_103012">http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/FreedomOfInformation/Freedomofinformationpublicationschemefeedback/FOIreleases/DH_103012>
2. The Department of Health public best practice guidelines for hospital parking charges. This includes recommendations such as:
• Staff charges should be discounted if staff should pay at all (some NHS bodies don't charge employees)
1 To have some kind of 'season ticket' arrangement, allowing free or reduced price parking for:
i. Patients with a long-term illness or serious condition requiring daily or regular treatment
ii. Relatives/primary visitors of patients with a long-term illness or a serious condition requiring daily or regular treatment
• NHS bodies are also recommended to have a weekly cap on car parking charges for patients/visitors having to attend on a daily basis
1 NHS bodies should consider whether a sliding time scale of charges should be in place. Some NHS bodies charge proportionately more for the first 3-4 hours; others do not charge at all for a stay of under 15 minutes
3. Macmillan Cancer Support has been running an ongoing campaign to end hospital parking charges for cancer patients. They are available to discuss their campaign and the charges that patients with chronic illnesses face on 0207 840 4971
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