Helen Duffett

CommentIsLinked@LDV: Norman Lamb on NHS parking charges

By | Wed 19th August 2009 - 2:02 pm

Liberal Democrat Health spokesman Norman Lamb says the NHS is using car parking charges as a “tax on the sick.”

From the Telegraph:

Every year the NHS in England makes over £100 million from parking charges. While these charges do generate some much-needed income for the NHS, they can also cause real hardship for patients and their families. Patients are often faced with eye-wateringly high parking costs, but poor public transport links means that they sometimes have little alternative but to pay up. This is a scandalous and unfair situation: it needs to change.

However, I do not believe that we should scrap all car parking charges for every patient and member of staff. At a time when NHS finances are under increasing pressure, we should not be diverting money away from patient care to subsidise car park maintenance. A balance needs to be struck which allows hospitals to cover their costs while not imposing too heavy a burden on those who have to use NHS car parks. Hospital parking charges have a disproportionate impact on regular visitors: cancer patients, people on dialysis, diabetics, older people and their families. This is a cruel system and represents a pernicious tax on the sick.

You can read the full piece here, including the Liberal Democrats’ proposed solution.

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