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Guildford Labour Urges People To Sign Petition To Scrap Hospital Car Parking Charges
Published on: 26 Nov, 2017
Updated on: 28 Nov, 2017
The Guildford branch of the Labour Party is urging people too sign its petition to end car parking charges at the Royal Surrey County Hospital.
The car park at the Royal Surrey County Hospital. Pictures courtesy of the Guildford Labour Party.
The branch says that in December 2015 a BBC report found that hospitals were making millions of pounds every year from car parking charges and that most hospitals charge for disabled parking.
It adds that charities such as Macmillan Cancer Support and groups such as the Patients’ Association have said that hospital car parking charges are morally wrong especially for the disabled and those attending hospital for life-saving treatment. The Patients’ Association also states that the claim from hospitals that car parking revenue is reinvested into front-line services is simply not true.
At the Royal Surrey County Hospital the minimum cost of parking is £4 for up to two hours, while Blue Badge holders are required to pay a flat rate of £4 per day to park there. The Labour group say this makes it one of the most expensive hospitals to park in the UK.
The Guildford Labour Party submitted a Freedom of Information request to the Royal Surrey County Hospital asking how much money it has received from the company managing the hospital car park. The response was as follows:
The branch commented, that since 2010, more £5.5 million has been raised for the hospital from car parking charges. The branch adds that the hospital was “unable to tell it how much profit the car parking companies were making, but we can assume that patients in Guildford have paid far more than this over the past seven years”.
The Labour Party believes the proper way of funding the NHS is through progressive taxation, so everyone takes a fair share of the cost. Raising millions from those already sick, or caring for the sick is completely against the principles of the NHS.
It considers hospital parking charges as a tax on serious illnesses and will end hospital parking charges for patients, visitors and staff. These charges place an unfair and unnecessary burden on families, patients and NHS staff.
Guildford Labour has called on the Royal Surrey County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust to make a stand and stop charging patients, visitors and staff to park.
It has organised a petition which you can sign at https://www.change.org/p/guildford-labour-stop-the-parking-charges-at-the-royal-surrey-county-hospital
It’s target is to secure 2,500 signatures, so far more than 1,500 people have signed the petition.
Members of the branch and will be campaigning at the hospital next week. Their message is: “Our NHS needs a Labour government that will stand up for the many, not the few.”
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Responses to Guildford Labour Urges People To Sign Petition To Scrap Hospital Car Parking Charges
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Bernard Parke
November 27, 2017 at 7:17 am
This a tax on the sick at a time when the public are under considerable pressure.
I hope that this project does not fall upon “deaf ears”.
Bernard Parke
November 27, 2017 at 3:18 pm
For the record, St Peter’s Hospital in Chertsey is just as expensive.
Mike Evans
November 28, 2017 at 10:26 am
If the Royal Surrey County Hospital scraps its charges then those at the university (who do pay charges) will park at the hospital for free, or maybe even commuters to Guildford looking for a convenient parking space with a good bus service into town.
The net result will be no improvement of access for patients or visitors and even more frustration.
In an ideal world no parking charges would be good but people are selfish and charges do help to divert people to legitimate parking.
John Perkins
November 29, 2017 at 9:05 am
Perhaps that could be overcome by charging for parking and giving refunds to those who actually attend the hospital.
Martin Elliott
November 29, 2017 at 2:31 pm
Actually, if on a low income on benefits, there is another scheme to exempt NHS charges, which RSCH recognises by refunding car parking fees and a mileage allowance (half the HMRC allowance.
Unlike supermarkets, the processes are all the usual demeaning means testing of a welfare state, and a ‘cash office’ with limited opening hours.
Brian Creese, Guildford Labour Party
November 28, 2017 at 12:20 pm
To update the above, we tried to leaflet patients and visitors to the hospital this morning but were very quickly moved on by management. This was disappointing as we were trying to talk to people about their experience of parking at Royal Surrey. Clearly hospital managers are very uncomfortable that we are raising this issue.
Mary Bedforth
November 29, 2017 at 2:40 pm
The charges are excessive and iniquitous.
What does the car parking company (CP Plus Parking Ltd of NW3) do with the proceeds? How much is remitted to NHS PropCo (NHS Property Services) who own the site?
Do CP Plus repair or maintain the surfaces? Maintain the surrounding grounds? Pay for the lighting? Answers – probably none of the above.
This is the critical quote from above:”The branch adds that the hospital was ‘unable to tell it how much profit the car parking companies were making.'”
I have signed along with 1,599 others. A poor show in view of the large number of the Guildford population (148,500 predicted 2017) who attend the hospital as patients or visitors.