20 July 2007
We received a petition asking:
"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to abolish parking charges in all uk hospitals."
Details of Petition:
"i believe that it is moraly wrong to charge visitors,patients and hospital workers any sort of fee to attend a hospital and that it will be an ever increasing amount,it seems that this is being used to raise funds [profit even] from something that we as members of the british public have already paid for and it will become just one of many new charges that will be levied against us in due course."
Read the Government’s response
NHS bodies have income generation powers which allow them to raise additional income by marketing any spare capacity resulting from a non-core function. Charging for car parking on healthcare sites is a common example of an income generation scheme. Certain rules must be followed, including the fact that profits raised must be used to improve health services.
Furthermore, providing car parking services will inevitably incur overheads which must be paid for. If no charges were imposed, maintenance costs would have to be found from elsewhere at the risk of diverting funds from patient services.
Hospitals’ locations differ with regard to the amount of space available for car parking and the pressure they face on available spaces. NHS bodies must therefore decide on the arrangements for car parking in the light of their particular circumstances, including whether or not, and whom, to charge. When making such judgements, Trusts have to consider the needs of all users of the hospital, including consultants, junior medical staff, nurses, other staff, patients, visitors, and emergency vehicles. Where spaces are limited, it may be impossible to offer all or any of these groups free or subsidised parking as to do so would affect the space available for others.
The Department of Health issued revised guidance to the NHS in December 2006 on the issues to be considered when setting up a car parking scheme or when reviewing existing ones, including what kind of car parking scheme to offer, what charges to impose and what concessions to consider. Following the recommendations of the Health Select Committee in their report NHS Charges, the guidance document was substantially amended from its predecessor to explicitly give strong encouragement to NHS bodies to be sensitive to those patients and visitors who have to use their car parks regularly by, for instance, offering them reduced price or free car parking. It also advises that the specific needs of staff be taken into consideration.
Further supporting advice and guidance has been produced by the Department of Health in Health Technical Memorandum 07-03 Transport Management and Car Parking to assist NHS bodies in managing their transport related operations and activities.
However, the fact remains that it is for individual NHS bodies to set the level of car parking charges on their premises, taking account of all the relevant local factors.
The Health Select Committee upheld this principal in its recent report. Whilst the Department of Health would envisage NHS bodies to take the recommendations of the Department of Health guidance into account when reviewing their car parking arrangements, they are not statutorily obliged to do so.
In relation to patients and their visitors, where car parking charges are in place, some people on low incomes may be able to claim reimbursement of them under the Hospital Travel Costs Scheme. Although this is a national scheme, it is administered locally by individual NHS Trusts, to whom enquiries about eligibility should be addressed.