Are hospital trusts cashing in on the sick?

nhs premises belong to the taxpayer why should we pay to
park on our own land.

What I object to is turning up on time for an appointment at say 10:00 not getting seen untill 11:30 being sent for blood tests after a 2 minute consultation this took 45 mins and then having to wait another hour for a further consultation to be told you will have to make another appointment for next week because the consultant has left to do his work at the local private hospital, this happened to me a few weeks ago, it cost me £6.70 for 4 hours car parking to get no treatment, when I complained I was told it was out of their hands and why didnt I go private, they don't charge for car parking!!!

My late husband had cancer. When he attended pathology followed by chemo we had a free car park ticket, but for any other department for the same illness, we had to pay for the car park.

Yes, the charges are unacceptable, so don't pay them, get a friend to drop you off and then pick you up. Boycott the hospital car parks and let their barriers and paypoints turn to rust.

Having spent over £50 visiting my father who was dying of cancer at Medaway hospital I was really annoyed at being charged to pick up the death certificate that was waiting for me at reception. Their helpfull, joke, booklet suggests donating money to one of their charities.

It is a sign of the times we live in, when hospitals can charge for parking something is very wrong. They are supposed to be caring for the sick not penalising them. If parking in hospitals is difficult then they should provide park and ride free. Anyone going to a hospital is not going for fun, its because they have to.

I am disabled with a Blue badge and I still have to pay for parking

Our local Hospital has just introduced parking charges, the 1st 20 mins are free I can not recall ever getting an appointment and be out in 20 mins. So its £3 or £60 fine everyone is parking on surrounding streets much to the annoyance of local residents

I think it is dreadful taking advantage of people who are ill in this way. Having recently had surgury it cost my wife a fortune in car park fees over the two weeks I was in hospital, it's a disgrace.

I have mixed feelings with regard to this having worked in the NHS for 47 years. Parking has to be provided but there is rarely sufficient funding to pay for security and up keep. Our NHS Trust have installed barriers which means you pay depending on how long you have stayed, but that doesn't necessarily help if you are visiting or your outpatient appointment is running late. Payment for our staff parking permits was based on earnings and the area in which you lived but was no guarantee of a parking place. If you lived outside of a 25 mile radius you were not allowed a permit and that included doctors. Staff who had to be on-call were exempt. You were not allowed to park in visitors parking and those who had to do the school run before work stood no chance as places were very limited. There are some who believed staff should not be allowed parking places because they were needed for patients and visitors but did expect staff to be present to meet their needs!

There are reasonable Pay and Display car parks with regular services to the hospitals but they don't always meet the needs of working hours or hospital appointments.

I don't have an answer to the problem but the NHS budget is constantly squeezed and money has to be raised some how. When one considers Type 2 diabetes alone costs the NHS 1 million pounds a day, you get some understanding how expensive health care is. I am not sure what people are expecting as their health care needs are free at the point of delivery and I am sure private parking companies are taking advantage but no one has come up with a better option.

I think it is disgraceful people have to pay so much for car parking in hospital grounds. Why don't the hospitals give each visitor a token, maybe charge them £1 to cover upkeep and this way you would not get people who are not visiting parking there, if they don't have a token then charge them £20, they would not park there then without a token, thus freeing up space for the real visitors.

No body visits a hospital for a treat, we visit because we have to, sometimes sadly to see very sick friends and relatives. Other times we are sick and scared and wanting help, why should anyone profit from another's pain? Because this is what it is pure profit.
There is a budget used for parking and this has been ignored. It does not need to be paid for from our fear and sadness. It's cruel and unhelpful.

Our local hospital uses the money raised to pay for the security staff and maintaining car parts within the hospital. There is a fixed charge and discount for relatives of the critically ill. I don't begrudge it.

Please queue up for the red thumbs down button. I don't care. Someone must speak out for the NHS!

Car parking charges are not even the tip of the iceberg.

The NHS is grossly under-funded when set against the increasing demands placed upon it. The staff at are breaking point. So many are stretched beyond their limits.

Advances in medical technology cost money - last I heard half a million pounds for a scanner!

There's a black hole in the pension fund. Add to that, as I read recently in our press, since the beginning of the financial year £800,000,000, yes eight hundred million pounds, has been paid out in compensation claims - I'm sure a good many were spurious claims.

We need to get some reality about the NHS. Our National Insurance contributions don't cover pensions or our health service.

The NHS needs a massive amount more funding if it is to survive in the form we know it - free at the point of need.

It seems to me there are three choices before us.

1) Leave funding as it is and watch the decline in services - medical staff emigrating, better treatments for us unavailable and facilities closing. I mean here either unnecessary pain and suffering or possibly a preventable early death. It could be your child or grand child. It could be you!

2) Pay for private medical care - some people already do that, but also must pay National insurance. No cost benefit there. But is private care so readily available as the NHS? Not in my experience.

3) Raise taxation across the board, including our pensions. The NHS gets 196 billion pounds a year now and it can't cope with demand. It has been suggested 250 billion pounds a year would meet today's demands. If we all gave an extra twenty pounds amonth directly to the NHS what a difference that would make!

My family has not always been served well by the NHS, but none the less, so many millions more have. Thus, I'm not so partisan as it may seem.

But I plead with you tonight, kidnap your M.P.'s, besiege parliament, do whatever, but get NHS funding increased to realistic levels.

If not, we'll all suffer, your family and mine.

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VERY WELL SAID PATCAF YOUR SPOT ON!

My husband had a heart attack and was in Basildon CTC. Having been called at work and rushed there finding money/ credit card for parking was an extra stress.
Over the 3 days he was an inpatient they must have had in excess of £50 from myself and other family members. Pluswe often had to queue to park as there were never enough spaces.

It is really the hospitals' fault as they have sold the car parking rights to private companies. The NHS/Government should never have allowed it. They are making money from the sick and elderly who are often the poorest in society; but you cannot blame the private parking companies as all they are doing is responding to opportunity offered by the hospitals. Blame the Chief execs of the hospital trusts as they need the money to pay their extortionate salaries and bonuses.

Outrageous! No one wants to be ill and no one wants to visit hospitals - parking should be free.