Hospital parking fees for relatives face axe

Rochdale Infirmary

Parking charges will be scrapped for families of patients staying in hospital, the Government has announced.

Health Secretary Andy Burnham said he wanted to introduce the parking permits to allow friends and relatives of in-patients to visit for free.

The charges will be phased out over the next three years after talks with individual health trusts.

Mr Burnham told the Labour party conference: “For families of the sickest patients, the costs can really rack up. It’s not right if some people don’t get visitors every day because families can’t afford the parking fees.

“And yet we all know that having friends and family around helps patients get better more quickly. I am clear we will make year-on-year savings from back-office costs and I want to see some of those benefits coming back directly to patients and their families.”

Just months ago the Department of Health said it would not scrap the charges for in-patients saying it was “not a good use of money”, but Mr Burnham said he had different priorities and said it was a long-term ambition of his to scrap the charges.

Latest figures show visitors paid out £919,689 at the hospitals run by the Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust which runs the Rochdale Infirmary. Outpatient and day cases would still pay to park if they chose to drive, Mr Burnham said.

A breakdown shows £919,689 was paid out by visitors and a further £759,823 from members of staff paying to park in the car park — a combined £1.67 million in hospitals.

Mr Burnham said: “We cannot have hospital car parks open fully as we do not want people parking there and going to work somewhere else.

“While I understand going to hospital can be distressing, staying in as an in-patient I think is different than a long pre-organised appointment in outpatient. In an ideal world I would go further.”

The change could not be brought about overnight he said, but added: “Over the next three years, as we can afford it, I want to phase out car-parking charges for in-patients, giving each a permit for the length of their stay, which family and friends can use.”

Mr Burnham said while he could not extend the free-parking to cancer patients coming for treatment, he said trusts should be offering the free parking to the patients themselves.

Scrapping charges are forecast to cost £140 million a year, paid for out of efficiency savings made nationally and locally.

Mr Burnham said: “We are going to work it through in a careful way as and when it can be afforded.”

"We have announced the intention. There are financial issues, there are operational issues. We are going to work it through in a careful way as and when it can be afforded. The goal is a great NHS. You would only have a great NHS when it really was fully focused on patients, how it at all times reduces stress and anxiety, and this is a cause of stress and anxiety, and also cost.

“As far as I am concerned it’s the right thing to do. I didn’t want to leave this job not having done something about this.”

Mr Burnham said while the scheme would be voluntary, he would legislate if trusts were not co-operative.

At Rochdale Infirmary, car-park charges are £1.70 for up to four hours, £3.50 up to 10 hours, and £5 for up to 24 hours. Regular visitors can pay £9 for a seven-day ticket, and there is free parking for 15 minutes when dropping off people.