Westminster View: Broomfield Hospital car parking charges 22nd October 2009
22 October 2009
I have always been of the view that excessive car parking charges at local hospitals are unfair and, in effect, a potential tax on healthcare. While I accept that nominal charges may be necessary to fund the operation of the car parking regime, I think that excessive charges are unfair and wrong.
That is why I have lobbied Mid Essex Hospital Trust for a number of years on this issue and during that time I have been led to believe that they would be seeking to reduce the charges rather than increase them.
I was disappointed earlier in the summer that the new banding system that came into effect at Broomfield Hospital appeared to benefit some people who use the car parks, but those who stay in the car park for between 15 minutes and 1 hour will now be paying 50 pence more under the new system. Anyone who stays between 3 and 4 hours will also have to pay 50 pence more, and anyone staying between 5 and 8 hours will be paying £1.50 more. I therefore still believe that the overall cost of car parking is too high and that the Trust should be seeking ways to reduce the levels of charges.
Many constituents, like me, were pleased to hear the health secretary's commitment, made during the Labour Party Conference, to abolish hospital car park charges. But we are now left with a certain amount of confusion as to exactly what the situation is in Mid Essex. It appears that the government are promising one thing, but the Hospital Trust are doing the opposite. I do hope that we can get some clarity to this situation soon and that the Hospital Trust will stop their oppressive charges which I regard, quite simply, as a tax on the sick.
But it is not just the patients, and their families and friends, who are being penalised. Just last week I questioned both the health secretary and the health minister in the House of Commons about the charges that hospital staff have to pay to park at Broomfield, and worryingly I received two contradictory answers.
My investigations have found that staff at Broomfield are also charged for their car parking. In fact, the income the Hospital Trust receives from staff parking has risen from £90,000 to £250,000 over the past two years and the effect is felt most by those members of staff who find it the hardest to pay the charges.
I was extremely pleased that when I asked him about the situation the health minister, Mike O'Brien MP, agreed with me about the car park charges for nurses and ancillary staff at the Trust. It was refreshing and candid of the minister to admit that he thought the rise was "a little excessive". I was also pleased that he said that he did not expect the programme by the Trust to bring the Hospital back into surplus to be “at the expense of staff”.
However, this positive news did not last long. Later that same day I also asked the secretary of state for health about the charges, and received a less satisfactory answer. Quite frankly, I was staggered by the health secretary's response to my question about doctors, nurses, and ancillary staffs' car parking charges. He said that to provide free parking for them would be a "difficult policy to introduce" and would "provide an incentive for everybody… to park for free at the hospital".
I would have thought that looking after the hard working and dedicated staff at Broomfield Hospital would have been as higher commitment as looking after patients, and that the secretary of state could be a little more generous in his policy; but it seems in this case the secretary of state does not take the same view as his Minister.
I can assure my constituents that I shall continue to press both government Ministers and the Mid Essex Hospital Trust on this issue. Surely, local people have a right to expect free hospital parking not just for patients, their families and their friends, but for the dedicated staff who are looking after them too. And we also expect clear policies and clear answers. At the moment, we are getting neither.
