The money Derriford Hospital collects each year from those using its car parks has topped £1.2m. That was for the latest financial year, 2008/09, writes Stuart Bonar, Lib Dem Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Plymouth Moor View
The amount paid by members of the public, attending for treatment or to visit friends or relatives, edged above £1 million for the first time. To be precise, it was up from £978,000 to £1,065,983. Staff who parked at the hospital site paid a total of £213,017, up from £172,000 the year before – a big jump of almost a quarter.
Total income from the hospital’s car parks, from both the public and staff, rose by £129,000, to stand at £1,279,000 – another big jump, of over 10 per cent.
Now, in fairness to the hospital, the car park isn’t a money-spinner. Although it brings in over £1.2m per year, it apparently costs £1.7m per year to run, which wouldn’t reduce by any great amount if they stopped charging. That means the income only partly covers the cost of having it.
Now, I have relatives who were born at Derriford, and indeed a member of my family has had his life saved by the NHS staff there. I appreciate fully that patient care must come first. If all parking was free that would mean having to cut back on patient care, and that would be wrong.
That said, travelling to and from the hospital is as much an expense as a charge for the care itself would be. I feel it’s only fair to look to cut the cost of parking at Derriford, for at least some of those who travel there for medical treatment.
I’m backing the Macmillan Cancer Support’s campaign to abolish all hospital parking charges for cancer patients. I would also include free parking for the parents or carers of children attending the Derriford Children’s Cancer Service.
I find it incredible also that blood donors currently have to pay to park at Derriford. If people are willing to take time out to travel to Derriford to donate their blood to the NHS, we shouldn’t be charging them to park while they do it!
Staff should also be helped. All three main parties are now committed to low pay rises for public sector staff over the next few years – because the nation’s finances are in such a mess. Therefore, I’m also calling for parking charges for NHS staff at Derriford to be frozen, at least while that period of pay restraint is in operation. They shouldn’t be hit by a double whammy of static pay and higher parking charges.
It would be great to do more, including making public transport to and from the hospital cheaper, but public money isn’t bountiful right now and these ideas would at least be a good first step.
• Should hospital car park charges be reformed? Comments below, please!
(image: Stuart Bonar Lib Dem PPC for Plymouth Moor View at Derriford Hospital Plymouth car park)
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