Hospital charges

If hospitals are having to charge for parking to be able to provide the services they do, surely that then begs a further question about how we fund our hospitals? Especially when you consider how often things are done by charities to raise money for equipment etc for hospitals?

At what point are we actually going to start holding our elected elite responsible, and stop accepting failure?

 

In most cases where there are charges like that, it is not raising any money for the hospital - it is going directly to a private parking company. I have to ask why that is deemed fair also - we all pay the same rate of income tax, VAT, IPT and fuel duty. with council tax being the main variable, so why is it OK for one area to have free parking and another not? The real irony is that Surrey having one of the highest charges is also the area where council tax is among the highest - mine this year is £185 a month for a bog standard two up two down type semi.

When you stop and consider the money we all pay in, and then consider that none of the public services that we are all paying for are actually functioning properly, or are always holding their hands out for more money - - - yet the companies contracted to provide many of the services and their shareholders are creaming off profits left, right and centre.

 

I would guess that's per hour. Our nearest hospital in a town high on the poverty list and their daily rate is £8.

 

That's correct but they are the companies that Tony Blair contracted with to either build or renovate the hospitals. The companies forked out the money and they shall be raking it in as repayment, with interest, for many years to come.

They are legally binding contracts and the only way to cancel them is to buy them out. That's why I said earlier that Corbin hasn't a snowball's chance of being able to cancel the charges which he is saying he would do if he were elected Prime Minister.

 

It runs much, much deeper than the PPF contracts that Blair signed though - there are great swathes of the NHS sub-contracted out to the likes of Virgin Healthcare etc; there are shedloads of companies making profits out of our healthcare system, and yet there is (allegedly) still not enough money. What makes it worse is that directors of these companies have to bow to shareholder pressure, so they cut costs (jobs, effectively) and slowly but surely their remaining staff are under more and more pressure, the service stops working as it should, and then it all goes pop................ and all the directors of the company have to do is put it into administration and they walk awy with their bank account nicely fattened. Carillion, Interserve, Healthcare Environmental Services, and each time it is you and me that picks up the bill.

Regardless - why should it be the case that someone can park for free at a hospital in one part of the country, whilst other people are paying up to £6.50 an hour? And to charge the staff! Well that is just a bloody insult.

This country is utterly Donald Ducked.

 

There are a few hospitals with free car parks that operate a ticket system (I think it's in the experimental stage) where you need to have the ticket validated in order to get out of the car park. This is done within the hospital but not sure where.

 

There are schemes where you can claim back transport costs in some cases, or for some people hospital transport can be arranged.

I sort of see where you are coming from, however as @CanadianLori mentioned earlier, don't forget that driving a car to a hospital that has free parking is not free transport - the petrol alone to get there will be a good few quid, and that is before you factor in insurance, VED and maintenance.