Should Hospital Car Parking Be Free?
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Should Hospital Car parking be free? 
It can be quite pricey to park and if you are visiting someone a few times or have regular appointments yourself, it certainly mounts up.
For staff and visitors definitely but would probably fast fill up with everyone else seeking out free parking so needs be a system of some sort.
MelissaLee1 Who do you think should be the ones to pay for their parking?
SamGoodship I think some of the NHS monies could/should be re-assigned..a great many are misappropriated and many of the machines of industry and big pharma are seriously over priced. Consultants albeit specialists are paid huge wages and low end workers even junior doctors are paid appalling wages.A full scale review of NHS wouldn't go amiss..er one that bears results that is and not one that just costs more!
It's hard enough to try and get a parking space at hospitals around where I live these days. A family member had to go for 2 days last week and paid £15 each day.
SamGoodship Absolutely, they did enquire and was told informed that if they had a few reqular appointments over a month eg Chemo, transplant etc then free parking would be applied but 6 hrs or more is £15.
Unfortunately my local hospital is just across the road from the town centre so if it was free I and many others would park there in order to shop in the town centre. It's an 8 minute walk from my home pretty much so if I am going to the hospital I just walk there. If I'm taking my mother to the hospital I drive her there, then go and park my car back at home and then walk back to the hospital if she needs me there. Then walk home get the car and collect her which is typically much later in the day if she has had some sort of procedure. Maybe she goes in at 9am and comes out at 3pm. The car parking charge for 5 hours is £11 but 5 hours probably wouldn't be enough so it would go to £15.20 for 24hr parking. Short journey from my home back and forth maybe £2 petrol? You only get free parking for 20 minutes for dropping off and collecting. If I needed to go to A&E I would either walk there or take a taxi. Even if I took a taxi there and back its a considerable saving over parking there.
I don’t pay to park in any hospitals as i have a disabled badge. I know in some hospitals you can buy a weekly pass if you are visiting. If you have an appointment- i think you should only pay for how long the appointment should take so you aren’t paying for a possible two hour delay which is neither the doctors nor your fault. And i get incredibly angry when people are parked in disabled bays without the badge.
Yes it should, however some people would take advantage of it unfortunately
SamGoodship well some would park there for free, say if they work in the local area ect..
As others have mentioned our main hospital is next to train station so people would obviously park here for free. The best idea and which has happened to me before is you can your parking ticket ‘paid for’ inside the hospital by a member of staff if you have had an appointment. To me this makes sense.
We have had Free parking at hospitals in Wales for a number of years which is a good thing , but actually trying to find a space to park in is big problem.
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