Another perk for the Scots.

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-110340 2/NHS-apartheid-row-Scotland-scraps-hospital-p arking-fees-English-patients-pay.html

How much longer are the English to be the poor relations of Britain?

[sqad617]

AOG ...........it amazes me of your recurrent surprise.

Scots have got their own Parliament, but they can vote in ours, but we can't vote in their's. For the past 11yrs it is difficult not to hear a Scottish accent in Politics.......what do you expect?

[youngmafbog]

Wont stop until we get shot of the scumbag sweaty prime minister and his cronies.

This is not the only outrage remember, money is being pumped inot labour heartlands - I wonder why ?

[ludwig]

Let's make a deal - we'll stop moaning about them using english taxpayer's money to subsidise their public services to the detriment of ours, if they stop moaning about how we stole 'their' oil.

[jno]

there's no such thing as a free parking space; it'll be paid for out of resources that would otherwise have gone somewhere else. It's more like reprioritising: they think that free parking at hospitals is more important than X (X is wherever the money is coming from); England presumably thinks the opposite.

[Ethel]

I agree entirely with jno.

With today's compensation culture car parks have to be maintained and kept lit and it costs the NHS millions of pounds a year.

"Those attending or visiting the Western or St John's will benefit, but the SNP's latest handout will cost NHS Lothian almost �1m a year and the health service in Scotland �5.5m annually."

I can think of better ways for the NHS to spend that money and quite frankly if you can afford to run a car you can afford to pay for parking.

[BertiWooster]

hmmm

Free parking ? - it's just a con by the SNP to gain popularity with some people .
The same type of people that will fill their trolleys full of ' buy one , get one free ' promotions in supermarkets - thinking that they are really getting something free .

The adjective , gullible , springs to mind .

[JockSporran]

Why don't the NHS in England abolish parking charges in hospitals? There shouldn't be parking charges in hospitals ANYWHERE.

Incidentally, it has been until now up to individual hospitals. The hospital where I work (in Scotland) has NEVER charged for parking. It has always been free parking.

[Ethel]

Because it costs millions of pounds a year to maintain and light the car parks - that money comes from the NHS budget. �5.5 million every year in Scotland alone.

If they fail to maintain the car park and somebody breaks their leg stumbling into a pothole in the dark, the NHS will be sued for compensation.

The NHS is not in the business of providing car parks - if you don't want to pay, walk, take the bus or take a taxi.

[TCL-MUMPING]

To put the �5 million into perspective, that works out at less than one pound per person per year or what NHS Scotland spends in less than five hours.

[weeal]

gawd, Scotty thumping again? even tho it includes Wales?
You also bleated about free prescriptions which we DONT get.
We did get the POLL TAX before you lot and you didnt moan about that !

[rov1200]

Why don't the larger hospitals supply a park and ride system. Depending on the distance from the hospital a shuttle service of just 2 buses may give a max of 15 minute wait.

[Ethel]

So the NHS would have to buy land, maintain it and light it, provide buses and staff....

[rov1200]

It was because of a local scheme in our area that gave me the idea. You were able to park your car ALL day for �1. What the NHS charges is way beyond reason.

[Ethel]

Those local schemes are funded by a mixture of council money and business rates - the shops like them because they attract more customers. Most park and ride schemes run at a loss, so private companies will not provide this service.

Most hospitals are on bus routes already. It doesn't take much thought to find a suitable free or cheap place to park on the bus route.

[samuelcat]

ethal-- you make going to hospital sound like a day out. I don't drive so i am all in favour of public transport.
however, if you need to go to hospital as a patient or a visitor it is not a choice but a necessity. my mum in law was recently in and quite poorly, the last thing we needed to think about was change for the meter or a parking fine.

[rov1200]

When hospital staff are unable to find a spot in their own car park something is seriously wrong. Whats wrong with subsidies? My parents take advantage of free bus travel, The scheme I mentioned above was into the centre of town so bus routes don't really come into it. If the parking spaces are congested a simple solution is required else nothing is ever done to relieve it.

[Ethel]

samuelcat - I have been in and out of hospital too often over the last 8 years, as in-patient, out patient and visitor.
It is not difficult to keep a lot of loose change in the ash tray of the car, is it?

A big problem is hospitals are often near towns and shopping centres. Free parking can be abused by shoppers and people who work in the locality, so hospital staff and visitors can't get a space to park.

[annie0000]

In Edinburgh they relocated the main hospital away from the city centre where there was adequate public transport from most places, to a new site out in the sticks with inadequate public transport, especially for staff on shift patterns, they then started charging, staff, patients and visitors about �10 to park - that is totally unreasonable and needed to be changed. However, I am not in disagreement that there should be charging set at a reasonable level. The difficulty is that now, people will use free parking at hospitals while they go shopping rather than as required for hospital attendance. There needs to be some system of control. i.e. a pass issued with an appointment card or admittance form.

As for your last comment - walking round with a chip on your shoulder doesn't change anything, we never voted Thatcher and the Tories in, but had to put up with the total destruction of a mainly socialist society, now the balance is being redressed - I am not a fan of the SNP and I disagree with a lot of what is being done but, we live in a democratic country and we get what we vote for.

Of course, you could do what a lot of English people are doing, and move here instead.

[samuelcat]

Its not about keeping change in the car.Its the fact that people who share this country with us being treated differently. they already benefit from free perscriptions amongst other things.Scotland is not another country but part on the united kingdom. if they want thier own rules we should think about rebuilding hadriens wall cut of government money and let them be a separate country.we all live in the uk and should all be treated the same not by postcode.