Parking charges at hospitals

[carolegif]

Did anyone hear Grodon Brown this morning say that we should pay exorbitant fees for parking, telephones and TV in hospital because we get the beds and treatment free! When I had my chemo I had to pay a �1 a time, then two months later when I returned for my radiotherapy the cost had gone up to �2! I didn't ask to be ill in the first place, plus I had to give up work which meant more hardship. I found his comments insulting.

carolegif

[smudge]

They charge �2.50 in our local hospital, whether it's 30 min's or 2 hours!

[smudge]

Nice one jrtv!

[gary baldy]

For every bad story there are are hundreds and hundreds of good stories about the nhs that nobody hears about because all you hear is the whingers.
My daughter was born with only one kidney. The level of care and communication from even before she was born has been first rate. She had to have a major operation before she was one and once again the pre and post operation care was excellent. Do you know what aswell? I dont give a monkeys that we had to pay for parking or that you have to pay for the telly! All that matters is that sick people get better and in my case and, if needs be, i would sell everything i own to make sure my daughter stays well. But do you know what? I didnt have to sell everything i own because, thanks to you all and the tax you pay, we didnt have to!
And to the poor person who lives in a rural area! Hard cheese! You choose to live in a rural area so you must make allowances for that. If the best care for my daughter was in Inverness then i would move to Inverness! If the best care for my daughter was on the summit of Snowdonia i would move there!
Stop whinging about having to pay a couple of miserly quid to park your precious cars or watch your precious telly when there are good people out there saving peoples lives day in and day out with little or no thanks.
Get your priorities sorted!

[kat2206]

GARY - Do you get it at all? I very nearly lost my life during that 2nd operation I had to have because of someones error, I nearly lost seeing my 3 sons grow up, get married etc etc.

I do not class myself as a "wingeing". My mum nearly lost a daughter and my sons a mother, so yes, I do think what I said was totally in perspective!

[gary baldy]

The point though kat is that you didnt die though did you because these people saved your life? First off there is no such thing as a routine operation - there is always risk. Secondly human beings make mistakes. 99 times out of a hundred medical staff get it right. Sadly , and i am truly sorry, but you were that one time. To be honest i can live with those odds because there are 99 people walking around who probably wouldnt be if it wasnt for these people.
The fact that you are still here is testament to their good work and my point is that some people are moaning about trivial matters concerning the nhs when there are more important things (such as your case for example) that are far more important.
For what its worth I'm glad you are still with us and i truly hope you get better soon.

[carolegif]

Thanks for the input guys, I thought it was just me going mad! (Probably cost �3 a day now to visit me if I was sectioned!)

carolegif

[gessoo]

God forbid, Gary Baldy, if I lived in the town I might come across more people rude people like you. There is no need to be personal on this site. I am not poor by the way. I haven't moaned about travelling to the hospital or the fact that it is 30 miles away. I do that journey quite happily. But the parking charge is too high.

Yes, there are lots of good things about our health service, but there are more and more very bad things happening mainly due to pressure of work and too many chiefs and not enough indians.

And don't insinuate that I wouldn't do the best for my child if I had to! I take great exception to that.

My telly is not precious to me, neither is my car!! I live a simple existence away from rude people like you - thank goodness.

[Oneeyedvic]

My elderly neighbour has cancer and is in hospital at the moment. It costs �2 for us to visit her for up to 2 hours. I can't say that �2 is the be all and end all, but five visits cost �10.00 - soon adds up.

Would also point out that since she is elderly, most of her friends are elderly - and they can't afford to go and visit her.
If she doesn't get visitors, she doesn't get better any quicker - so she is actually costing the NHS more by being there longer.

Where we used to live (Northampton) although the hospital was within walking distance from the bus station, there is no way I would suggest that any woman (sorry for being sexist) go there after dark (4pm in winter), so public transport is not always an option.

[sandbach99]

Our local hospital was built in open country, the parking fees have just increased to �2.00 a time, they are now making there nurses pay a reduced rate. There is an hourly bus from my house but it goes a long way round taking an hour to get there. There are insufficient parking spaces, so patients desperate to keep their appointments park on the grass verges at the enterance or across the road without fail the police come round every morning and book them all! Our NHS the best, explain why it is such a wonderful system Gary, my mother spent 6 weeks as an inpatient before she died after lapsing into an unexplained coma, registrating the death was awful I had to return to the registrars and the coroner was involved, the given cause of death, General deteriation. I was a nurse before I had my children, and apart from a few of the old school nurses I was ashamed of the standards. You say your daughter had the best treatment, where was you comparing it to? or was it good because the treatment was sucessful and you never saw anything wrong.

[tigilou]

I'll never forget being in labour 4 22 hours and poor old mum having to keep going out to the car every 4 hours to get a new ticket for the car by the time i was finished that money could have got me a pram

[gary baldy]

This thread has reached the depths of ponderousness and I refuse to be drawn any further on the subject.

[gessoo]

Good.

[gessoo]

I believe that some people do not realise that to other �2.00 is a significant amount of money. The elderly are the most frequent users of hospitals. Most elderly people would have great difficulty in finding this extra money for parking.

Our local hospital is the same one Oneeyedvic. Yes, we know each other!

[Coobeastie]

I believe there was a recent case where a certain hospital had free parking...the upshot of which was that it was mainly used as a glorified park and ride car park for shoppers and town workers.

Thats why most hospitals set charges high.

[Zen]

Think you've got problems ?
Cancer patients who have to cross the Humber for treatment say they should be exempt from costly bridge tolls.

People living south of the estuary have to pay �5 for each round trip over the Humber Bridge when they use hospitals in Hull and East Yorkshire

[gessoo]

The hospital I refer to is new and built right out of the city. Noone would use it for parking except people going to the hospital. And you have to use it and pay as there is nowhere else you can possibly park!!

[gessoo]

That's dreadful Zen.

A trip to hospital costs me approximately �10.00, including the parking. I couldn't afford that if I had to go regularly, especially if I couldn't work because I was too ill.

[Evorg Enaj]

Car parking at the Luton & Dunstable hospital costs �2.50 for a day or any part of a day, however small. The �2.50 has to be paid everytime you go in, so that a requirement to go in during a morning and then again in the afternoon costs �5. There are no exceptions, everyone pays the full amount, patients, visitors, disabled, although the staff get concessions. I used the public ward telephone to phone home after an op, and it cost 50p per minute. Mobile use is forbidden in the hospital, and between 6 and 7 every evening you will find 20 -30 of the halt, lame, blind, ill and just operated on clustered in their pyjama's and dressing gowns outside in the open whatever the weather by all of the ground floor doors all speaking earnestly into their mobiles. Then it's everyone help everybody else back upstairs to the various wards for the night. The treatment there is absolutely excellent, however, and given the circumstances they look after you very well indeed.

[Peter Pedant]

kat 2202

if you had 14 li of blood - my that's a lot! - because the staff didnt read the notes, you should sue the arse of them.

in short they are paid to read that sort of thing...

[libertie]

The new Edinburgh Royal Infirmary charges visitors and staff alike! On a recent visit there I paid almost �3 for 2 hours and many of the staff pay �10 per day!