Discuss - Health Hospital Car Parking Charges - Scrap hospital car parking charges

Should hospital car parking charges be scrapped, even if it means less money for the hospital?

Alliance Party "The Alliance Party is committed to a Health Service free at the point of delivery. That is not currently what we have. People have to pay to park to visit family members and friends; people have to pay for eye checks and teeth checks; people have to pay for personal care for older people. So, we would seek to put in place a strategy to reduce and, ideally, eventually remove all those charges." Source: Alliance Party website, http://allianceparty.org/article/2008/0003956/mccarthy-speaks-on-hospital-car-parking-charges

Conservative "Patients and families shouldn't have to deal with the added stress of unfair parking charges. These clear ground rules set out our expectations, and will help the public hold the NHS to account for unfair charges or practices" - Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt. Source: BBC, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-28905695

Labour "The Tory-led Government scrapped Labour’s plans to phase out car parking charges for patients and Jeremy Hunt needs to take responsibility for the fact that since then one in four hospitals have increased parking fees. Any action to ease the burden of car parking charges on patients and their visitors is welcome. When people go to hospital, the last thing they want to worry about is parking fees." - Andrew Gwynne, Shadow Health Minister. Source: Labour Press, http://press.labour.org.uk/post/95534234449/government-scrapped-labours-plans-to-phase-out

Liberal Democrat "Lib Dem former care minister Paul Burstow stressed that parking being used as a "cash cow" in the NHS is "not acceptable". Source: BBC, http://www.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/house-of-commons-29016471

SNP "Keeping health free – we have abolished prescription charges, the tax on the sick, and we have also abolished car parking charges in NHS hospitals brought in under the previous Labour/Lib-Dem Executive" Source: SNP Website, http://www.snp.org/vision/healthier-scotland/health-and-wellbeing

UKIP UKIP have stated that they will commit to spending £200m of the £2bn saving [from disallowing migrants access to free treatment on the NHS] to end hospital car parking charges in England. Source: UKIP Policy.

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