Parking charges at hospitals

[carolegif]

Did anyone hear Grodon Brown this morning say that we should pay exorbitant fees for parking, telephones and TV in hospital because we get the beds and treatment free! When I had my chemo I had to pay a �1 a time, then two months later when I returned for my radiotherapy the cost had gone up to �2! I didn't ask to be ill in the first place, plus I had to give up work which meant more hardship. I found his comments insulting.

carolegif

[gessoo]

I had to pay �2.00 for a 35 minute stay in a hospital car park last week! The first half hour is free parking. How many people only visit a hospital, either as a patient or a visitor for under half an hour (including the long walk to the appropriate department). There is no other way for me to get to this hospital other than by car.

To me �2.00 is is quite a lot of money. I don't suppose Mr Brown would pay it anyway - his chaffeur would drop him at the door of a Private Hospital.

[gessoo]

I don't think we should be making money out of infirm people.

[Lonnie]

I agree to a certain extent with the fees, but it should be free for in and out patients, after all, they've paid into the NHS, �2-00 for visitors seems a fair charge, but no more.

[gessoo]

I should have pointed out I was a patient. Perhaps a fee for visitors is OK, but when you are visiting a loved one perhaps three times a day this could prove very expensive. When people arrive at a hospital the last thing they want to do is think about is going to a parking meter, etc.

[jrtv]

Brown & Blair, 2 cheeks of the same arse.

[silly moo]

I work in an hospital, and our charges are 30 mins free, 4 hours 50 pemce, over 4 hours �1.
We now have much increased security around the hospital (inside and outside) paid for partly by these parking charges.
I think any more than that is too much.
By the way as staff we do not have to pay.

[gessoo]

Well those seem fairer charges silly moo. I was certainly miffed at �2.00 after 30 minutes, and it gets more expensive as the length of stay increases.

[kat2206]

I totally agree with everything that the parking charges are far too expensive, I was in hospital recently having a hysterectomy and my partner was there with me every day, we joked about this but we did say we might have to take out a 2nd mortgage to pay for the fees while MR BROWN lines his pocket and all the immigrants he is letting into OUR country being able to have NHS treatment IMMEDIATELY without paying a sodding thing.

Ain't this Country great?!!!

[shaneystar2]

At our local hospital they have had parking charges for ages now.. .50p per hour. Also they charge for television and telephone.The NHS is going to hell in a handbasket and it's quite obvious that that want to privatise whole lumps of it. I can see a future where we have the same system that they have in America.
I know you will all jump on me now when I say that we have private medical care. It was a (taxable) perk of my husbands job and since we have retired have kept it up. It's a lot of money to find each month but worth it to us for peace of mind.

[shaneystar2]

And ...may I just add that if they cut down on the amount of office wallahs and adminstrators and managers in the NHS they would free up more money for essential resources ..nurses,doctors....scanners and other equipment .

[Lonnie]

I should point out, at our local hospital, the charge is �2-00 for however long the stay, or how short.

[gessoo]

In general I find most NHS staff efficient and caring. What is wrong is the administration of the service. Cut backs in administration costs and unnecessary managers would save millions. Bring back Matrons who ruled with a rod of iron and who received very small salaries in comparison to all these so called senior administrators. Nurses have taken on more and more doctors duties and now there is no one to do the nursing. I don't know what the heck this has got to do with parking charges, but Shaneystar started me off..................

[flip-flop]

If the treatment is free, where the hell does my tax and NI go fer chrissakes???

[frizzytwig]

Exactly what I was gonna say flip flop

[shaneystar2]

They have just installed a new scanner at my local hospital ..can't quite remember now ..something to do with kidneys....anyway it was funded by local people doing charitable things ..and they have nobody to operate or staff it !!
We had a minister from the department of health here to cut the tape and the head of the renal department collared her ..and the minister was very red faced when she couldn't explain to her why she couldn' t have any staff.

[gary baldy]

No disrespect to any one individual but it it makes me mad when people moan about our health service and how much you have to 'pay'. We have the best 'free' health service in the world and over the past 60 years we have frankly just become to take it for granted.
So what if you have to pay for parking ! Get a bus or taxi! You dont get free parking when you go to the shops or to the theatre etc in town do you - why should it be free (people would only take advantage of it anyway)?
So what if you have to pay for tv and telephone - you have to pay for it home dont you? Its not a blinking holiday camp you know!
If the hospitals can raise some cash - good luck to them. They dont spend it on booze and fags you know - it goes to pay for clinical services.
Move to America and see how much you will miss our frankly quite extraordinary health service.

[kat2206]

We have the best Health Service Gary, oh really ? Let me tell you what happened to me, 7 weeks ago I had a routine hysterectomy, 4 hours later I was back in theatre having 4 litres of blood pumped out of my stomach because of a major communication error in hospital that the consultant and staff had NOT looked in my medical records and NOT seeing that my blood does not clot that well. I went on to have 14 pints of blood transfused back into my body during the week or so while I was in hospital. Since then I have had major complications.

So please do not tell me that we the have the best.

[Big Al1st]

Apart from the car park fees the telephone charges are extreme. It cost my wife 35 pence per minute to ring me in the hospital. It cost 20 pence for my son from Australia to ring in.

That is the real reason why they stop you from using mobile phones in hospitals. Not because it intereferes with the equipment but forces you to use the inhouse equipment, which at the RUH Bath is run by a company called Patientline, who have been in the news lately because they are loosing money. The television is �3.50 per 24 hours regardless of the fact that you may be asleep for 12 hours or more of the day. This, coupled with telephone charges and parking fees means that you have to take out a second mortgage in order to enjoy the amenities.

[gessoo]

Gary - I live in rural Norfolk - our Hospital is 30 miles away and there are no buses where I live. A taxi would cost a week's wage!! (Our wages are the lowest in the UK) I have to drive to get to hospital as do most Norfolk people. I presume you are a town dweller by your statement!

[gessoo]

I broke a vertebra on Christmas day. We called the out of hours medical service. We were told that if I could move my arms and legs then I would be OK - just take pain killers. Three days later, after several more calls a doctor decided he would come out. He called an ambulance immediately. This is not an isolated case.

My back was xrayed and I was told by the duty doctor that no bones were broken - go home and try to keep mobile and again, take painkillers. Two days later I got a phone call from the Hospital. The consultant had looked at my xray - I had a broken vertebra!!

The Health Service is in a mess. There are not enough people in the right place. Phoning a call centre for medical advice is not good enough. The concept is great, it worked well. It is not working now.