Scrap Hospital Parking Charges

There's a petition calling for parking charges at hospitals to be scrapped. If you are in favour of this please sign.

Petition to scrap hospital parking charges

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If the revenue generated by the carpark charges went directly to the hospitals I would have no qualms about paying it.

If hospital car parking becomes free and restrictions are lifted you WILL NEVER find a spec’ there during the day.

It will be abused by shoppers, town Center workers and commuters who are always looking for convenient and lfree parking, they will simply leave their cars there all day without setting foot in the hospital and rub their hands together at the thought of not having to pay to park.

There could be a scheme introduced whereby you are not allowed to park at the hospital unless you have a reason to actually be there but.....it will cost and who will meet this cost? Furthermore where will the funds come from to maintain the car parks?......The already struggling NHS that’s who.

Nice idea, but it’s not been thought through.

do you know summut sledge, I agree with you on this,

"Furthermore where will the funds come from to maintain the car parks? ...... The already struggling NHS that’s who."

Are you suggesting that the car-parking companies are responsible for the car-parks maintainence?

I'll show my arse at t'top o' Wiggin if they are!

Let's ask Gaffer, he'll know!

No, I am saying that some trusts use the money generated from parking charges to offset the costs involved with hospital estate upkeep and management. Which may include grounds, access roads, footpaths and if course car parking areas.

If all parking charges are abolished where will these trusts now find the funds needed to maintain their estates?

Answer.......somewhere else!

I sincerely hope I have made my point clear and simple enough for you to understand

WWL trust are already trying privatisation by the back door to try to off load it's estates and maintainance employees into a subsidiary group, patronisingly named WWL Solutions. The employees at risk of losing their NHS status, including, pay, conditions of employment and pensions are the already lowest paid workers in the NHS, including domestics, porters, kitchen staff, maintainance workers at Wigan, Writington and Leigh hospitals. I dread to think what will happen to these hospitals if the move goes ahead.

Strikes to keep these jobs and standards within the NHS have and are ongoing. Good luck to these workers, in the fight to keep the NHS from further hatchet jobs.

This HERE - is MY point. It's simply clear, I do hope YOU understand it, as I'm sure most others will !

I don’t really care about your point, but I will accept your apologies for completely misunderstanding mine

The car park charges on WWL sites are set to cover the cost of running the car parks. If the charges are scrapped the car park running costs will have to come from the clinical budgets. Currently that would be the equivalent of around 250 cataract operations each year.
The move to transfer some non clinical staff to a separate company is more about the cost of managing the functions involved. Managing a £400 million acute health budget requires very highly remunerated professionals who need to concentrate on the bigger picture. Running the peripheral services, whilst important to the well being of the patients, is capable of being effectively managed at a much lower cost.
Preventing the NHS striving to improve efficiency at every turn under the bogus claim of privatisation is a sure way to impede it’s ability to cope with an ever rising demand for services. Given that the cost of running the NHS and social care is growing at a rate that is faster than the growth in the economy it is looking likely that taxes will have to rise to make up the gap, either in full or minimised by improvements in efficiency.

With what they charge to park on them, the running costs of those car parks must be very high.

Much like the Brexit vote..... people jump in with both feet without much regard for the wider view or further consequences.

Looks like Gaffer has indeed confirmed the point I made regarding funding

Do you need directions to t'top of Wiggin Tonker? and will you take and post some pics when you drop your kecks so we can all have a good laugh at your arse

We don’t pay charges at our Hospital,but you still can’t get a space.lots park on the supermarket nearly a mile away.they are even putting bollards on pavements to stop them.

Excuses excuses...should be free with an appointment letter...not for a and e though....a barcode on the letter should suffice..

When I was going to Christie's Hospital for Cancer treatment I was given a 4 digit code to raise a barrier for a FREE car park

👍👍👍👍same with us gaffer....what’s good for the goose eh ?

15,417 signed so far...done

Gaffer should know more than we do regarding NHS business. However ......

The NHS has given the collecting of car-park fees to the British Parking Association.

The British Parking Association are reporting an annual income of £3402 million in 2017 (or £3.402 billion)

The British Parking Association pay their middle management three figure salaries, their 'executives' millions, plus 'bonuses' in the millions.

According to the NHS, they recieved £174 million from that total income of £3402 million.


Questions: Why does hospital parking need to be 'controlled' by a private company which is, clearly and admittedly, making £billions a year out of it?
How many cataract operations would them £billions a year pay for?
What would it cost to have a few pensioners taking parking money on each hospital?
How much does it cost to 'maintain' a car park?

If the NHS picks up the bill for 'maintainence' of hospital car parks, and they pay for it out of their share (£174 million), what good use is the remaining £3228 million put to?

Roy Lew

Unfortunately WWL is a scraggy gander compared to a fat financial goose at The Christie.
Like all acute trusts WWL struggles to balance the books.
By comparison The Christie enjoys a surplus of around £15 million each year. It receives substantial private patients income and £millions in donations each year. All of it fully deserved I hasten to add.
The majority of The Christie patient car parks incur a charge.
It’s not rocket science. We members of the public don’t pay enough to cover what we expect from the NHS. Looking for free car parking only exacerbates the situation.

Which brings me back to what I said originally -

"If the revenue generated by the carpark charges went directly to the hospitals I would have no qualms about paying it."

Exactly Tonker.

Same with the parking meters and resident and business permit parking along the roads close to the hospital. They're very lucrative cash cows.

Also, Gaffer, tell us about how much of the 'private patient income' enjoyed by Christies hospital is taken by the Health Corporation of America?
And, in comparison, how much does Wrightington hospital get from private patients?

It's all a fraud, operated by 'them men' at the expense of 'us men'!

Tonker

The Hospital Corporation of America has a 50 50 joint venture with The Christie for private patients. Capital expenditure and profit sharing is on the same basis.
WWL private patient income at a shade over £2 million is less than one per cent of income. The Foundation hospitals bill introduced by the Blair government put a ceiling on private income of six per cent of total income.

there,s no alternative to parking charges,for once i agree with sd ,the maintenance of these facilities would have to come out of the trust,s existing finances.no right minded person would want to see cash go to tarmac rather than necessary treatment.
the main problem is we dont pay enough for our free treatment.
bevan could never have envisaged the current amount of spending today,s nhs needs.

It’s not only the cash it raises Brainless. The charges also deter the p*** takers who would quite happily leave their vehicles there all day every day denying the genuine hospital visitors much needed parking specs’.

no one would park at the infirmary visiting wigan, far to far away forthe lazy sods. park at tesco,s.

Is the infirmary (hospital) not IN Wigan then? Would someone visiting the Cherry Gardens for lunch, followed by a stroll through Haigh 'plantations' not be 'visiting Wigan'?

Dump the car at the hossie, bus or walk into town, train into manc or Liverpool???

If that car park became a free for all you wouldn’t get near it between 6am and 6pm. It would be full of commuters all saving themselves £100 + a month and laughing their heads off.

You would have even less chance of finding a spec and the hossie looses a valuable income stream. Win win win eh?

Like I said, nice idea but not thought through.