HOSPITAL PARKING
FEATURE
for CP Plus – which looks after car parks for more than 40 trusts – believes that it’s ‘down to the trust’ to advise people on concessions. ‘It’s difficult for the car park operator to do so, but most effective if you do it in letters for patient appointments,’ he says.
Debate over fair costs What constitutes a fair cost remains a highly-charged debate, one left open- ended by the charter’s insistence that ‘parking tariffs and tariff structures will be reasonable… they will reflect supply and demand, and the cost of… providing the service’.
‘But with pay-on-foot, there’s no enforcement – exit technology eradicates the need for a ticket. And there are other benefits – you can offer additional information, directing people to where there’s space.’ He does, however, concede that ‘there’s a size of car park below which it is uneconomical, and some layouts where it doesn’t work’.
When the need for regular visits is suddenly thrust upon you, daily parking can rapidly grow unaffordable. The charter recommends that NHS trusts and car parking contractors should define regular or long-term treatment ‘in consultation with patients’, possibly capping payments if more than five visits are demanded by a course of treatment or in-patient stay. But there’s still no uniform policy, on concessions or publicising them. At Vinci- run operations, concession groups eligible for free or reduced fee parking include renal and oncology patients, and parents of children in a high dependency ward. ‘We try to work with our clients to make sure people are aware, by publicising concessions at tariff barriers or creating a leaflet/flyer with frequently asked questions,’ says Herring. Grahame Rose, development director
www.britishparking.co.uk
What constitutes a fair cost remains a
highly-charged debate
However, it insists that tariffs should consider the impact on local residents if high prices drive motorists to park in side streets. Newspapers continually report friction in this respect. In Bath, for instance, where any stay of more than half an hour in the Royal United Hospital’s (RUH) trust-run car park costs £2.60, on-street parking has become the bane of local residents. Asked about the charges and their effects, an RUH spokeswoman said: ‘The Trust has a fair pricing structure and also provides free disabled spaces across the site. Travelling by car is not the only option. Our policy is to encourage the use of public transport and park and ride wherever possible.’ However, she added, the charter’s statement on tariffs ‘seems reasonable’. ‘We’ll take that into consideration when we next come to reassess parking charges.’ Although a hospital’s website appears the obvious way to advertise concessionary rates, they’re not featured on the RUH site. ‘Details are included in patient information and will also be available on updated webpages,’ the spokeswoman promised. As Herring points out, the problem of trusts operating in different ways will not be resolved overnight. ‘There can be problems communicating; in some situations car parking is a small part of someone’s role and things aren’t picked up.’
Johal hopes that the revised charter will appear within the next 12 months and become ‘a benchmark for trusts to work towards’. The charter needs to be sold in properly, he says.
‘We’re now starting to develop a toolkit that hospital trusts can download, giving best practice guidance. It’s all about getting board level buy-in.’
JULY 2012 35
Nikola Bilic/
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