Nhs Parking

[Bobbisox1]

I’m surprised no one has posted this yet, , surely NHS staff should always be exempt from parking fees ....always

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-government-urged-to-u-turn-over-car-parking-charges-for-nhs-staff-12023502

[youngmafbog]

Why should they be? People at private Companies often have to pay - it was a liberal idea from quite a few years ago to charge employees.

[youngmafbog]

Not all NHS staff do pay though - yet.

[Bobbisox1]

So why did they implement it in the first place ymg ?

[retrocop]

My wife never had free parking when she worked as a staff nurse at her NHS hospital at Queen Mary's Roehampton. (Same Trust as St Georges.) She paid £20 a month. She had to pay for refresher courses as well in order to update her NHS pin. No Pin and No Nurse registration.

[MartinMillar]

No they should not be exempted its a perk. Other public servants have to pay for parking.

[youngmafbog]

Liberals lent on companies, usually large ones, to charge for the parking. I think the idea was to force everyone onto public transport or their bike. Of course for areas not in Cities this just ends up as a 'tax' on employees as there is little public transport and often people have to travel too far for a pushbike.

Hospitals charge because they are allowed to and usually claim they use the fees to help the hospital. More like simply pays a bigger salary to the hospital management I suspecrt given the gross salaries some of them are paid.

As a point of interest I do not agree with charging in hospitals, either for staff or for patients. Neither do I think any employees should be charged.

[Mozz71]

The whole concept of having to pay to park your car at your workplace is disgusting in my view.

[barry1010]

I don't want my NI contributions to be used to maintain free car parks for well paid staff who choose to live too far from work to walk or cycle.

[barry1010]

Mozz, should employers pay their staffs bus or train fares?

[LadyCG]

I pay £20 a month directly from my wages. We were given 3 months free parking during the Covid response. We were also given free meals from the canteen, initially 3 times per day, then this was limited to once daily. That ceased a few weeks ago (although I've been off sick since that time) and in the meantime Icecream Vans have been attending to give out free icecreams to all staff.

We have also had generous donations of groceries, sandwiches and other provisions, none of which I have taken advantage of as I don't need to and I only work normal office hours.

As for the parking situation, I am happy to pay £20 per month, which is cheap compared to paying in non-hospital car parks and frankly it's not safe to park in a residential street near the hospital as several of my colleagues have had their vehicles damaged by spiteful residents.

If they did scrap the charge for NHS staff though, I wouldn't complain.

[Bobbisox1]

I’m actually quite surprised by the cavalier attitude here, they were given this ‘perk’ to work and save lives , that’s not about to stop anytime soon

[mallyh]

finding a parking space is really hard now they have closed our hospitals and made one big super hospital ,if all the staff parked for free there would be even less places as more would drive to work .

[Bobbisox1]

Lcg, sorry, I wasn’t aware it was given to NHS staff for only 3 months ?

[Mozz71]

//should employers pay their staffs bus or train fares?//

Nope. Nor should they pay for fuel costs for the vehicles.

Maybe a nominal fee like LadyCG mentions is a good compromise.

[barry1010]

mallyh, you should listen to some of those complaining about hospital parking in Wales where it is free.

[Mamyalynne]

NHS Parking charges,whether for staff,patients or visitors has been debated here and elsewhere for years - a very thorny issue.

[Bobbisox1]

LBC said there be an outrage when the story broke this morning ( seems not)

[ubasses]

The problem at our local hospital is the surrounding offices and businesses. If they did not charge more for the hospital than the public car parks there would be no spaces. Staff can buy season tickets which are charged according to their salary band, and pay by DD monthly. One of the local bus companies provides free transport for NHS staff to the hospital. I don't know if that is permanent or during the pandemic. Visitors can also buy reduced permits for longer stay patients.

[bednobs]

I worked for the NHS since I was in my early 20s until my mid 40s and never had free parking. Even where you have to pay a lot to park, finding spaces is still very difficult, so goodness knows what it'd be like if the carparks were free.
My local hospital is by the town centre, so they have to charge or people just park there and walk into town

[Peter Pedant]

um no bobby
they were and then the hospitals came in for criticism for using space on site which didnt turn in revenue
[ there is a phrase for this in retail - non selling space or something]
so they charged and THEN
sold on the rights to car parking companies ( for moolah up front)
and so - - - to buy out the rights - - -
yup there are punitive clauses in the contracts

as was all pointed out to them by people like me at the time

no surprise at all then