I think that hospitals should charge for car parking. I went, recently, to a
hospital not far away, where drivers have to obtain a ticket from a machine at
the car park entrance. A barrier then lifts, and the driver goes in and finds
a space. He pays for his parking at a machine inside the hospital, drives to
the car park exit, and inserts his (paid) ticket into a machine. A barrier lifts,
and away he goes. Recently, the entry barrier was out of order, which meant that
nobody had to pay for parking until it was fixed. The locals soon found out that
they could park there for nothing, and genuine hospital visitors had great difficulty
in finding a space. If hospital car parks were permanently free of charge, those who
needed to be at the hospital would be seriously inconvenienced.