London

Nurses across the capital are angry that they have to pay to park at hospitals while other public sector workers such as police officers and fire fighters park free.

And while they only want the very best for their patients there are concerns that their salaries are being used to prop up the NHS.

'Unfair' Charges

Albert Ampofo, a Charge Nurse at Kingston Hospital NHS Trust in Surrey and Unison branch Secretary has been working at the hospital for almost nine years.

Kingston charges its staff 1.5% of their salary for a parking permit capped at £500.

Unison supports parking protest

Mr Ampofo pays £400 a year to park at the hospital which he thinks is grossly unfair.

"For people who live outside Kingston it's a lot of money because a lot of people don’t live within the borough. It’s a very expensive borough and most people drive to work."

"The prices have gone up and for the low paid, say for someone on £15,000 to £20,000, it is quite a lot of money to pay car parking charges in these current economic circumstances."

In response Kingston Hospital said that the trust is well served by public transport and it has invested in initiatives to encourage cycling and walking to work.

However Nora Pearce a midwife and Unison steward at the hospital disagrees.

"How do you get there at 7 o'clock in the morning when you’ve done a 12 ½ hour shift?

"Do you really want to be faffing around on a bus and a train in Kingston town centre at night?

"And there is a health and safety issue. I do believe that the Trust does have a duty of care to its staff to ensure that the staff get home properly."

Campaign

The Nursing Times is campaigning to end car parking charges for all nurses working in the NHS.

Hospitals in Wales and Scotland have scrapped most parking charges and they are calling on the government and NHS in England and Northern Ireland to follow suit.

In a recent survey for the magazine 91% of nurses thought this was unfair. News Editor Steve Ford agrees:

"If it can be done in Wales and Scotland why not England? We know from our figures that one in five nurses are having to spend £50 a month and where they cant get into car parks having to pay £8 a day sometimes because they cannot get parking permits."

Patients

But it is not just London’s nurses that are feeling the squeeze. Patients and visitors using London’s hospitals are unhappy too.

At £3 an hour the Royal Free Hospital NHS Trust in Hampstead is one of the most expensive hospitals to park in the capital.

Last year pensioner Joan Laurance was admitted for heart surgery. She was advised to return for rehabilitation for a week and told not to take public transport. However she faced a dilemma:

"The patients who do go to rehabilitation live quite a bit longer than those that don’t. It was much too expensive to spend three hours a day for five days. So I decided that the money could be better spent on other things."

A spokesman for the Royal Free Hospital said:

"The charges were set in 2000 to deter commuters from using spaces meant for hospital patients and visitors and have not been raised since."

"There are dispensations from parking charges for certain groups, such as family and visitors to patients who are near to death or being treated in the intensive treatment unit (ITU).

"Those who attend the hospital regularly, such as radiotherapy patients, also qualify for free or substantially reduced charges.

"The trust is trying to identify other patient groups who could qualify for free parking."

Penalties

Many London hospitals without car parks have parking restrictions enforced by the local council.

Waiting times can be unpredictable and going out to feed a meter is not always easy.

London born actress Lysette Anthony recently found herself in a real life drama after parking outside Great Ormond street hospital with her son, Jimmi, who has juvenile arthritis.

"Jimmi went in for an operation and you get three hours on a disability badge and then you have to move the car.

"There was nowhere to move it to because by the time the 3 hours were up it was 11 o’clock and we were still on the ward."

"We were given a £60 ticket because we couldn’t leave our son on the operating table to go and satisfy Camden Council!"

Ms Anthony appealed the fine and the council refunded the money.

In response Camden said that people parking in contravention of parking regulations are liable to receive a ticket wherever such incidents occur, including streets around hospitals and they take into account mitigating circumstances when representations or appeals are made about particular tickets.

'Stealth Tax'

Since 2000 hospital trusts in England have been able to set their own parking charges. In 2006-2007 London Trusts made over £13,000,000 in parking fees from staff, patients and visitors.

A Department of Health spokesman said:

"The national Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme (HTCS) operates in every NHS trust. It enables patients on low incomes, referred for non-primary medical care, to reclaim the cost of travelling to and from their appointments. This includes parking charges."

"All trusts should have exemption and concessionary schemes in place to ensure that patients and carers who visit hospital regularly are not disadvantaged."

But Geoff Martin Head of Campaigns at Health Emergency believes charging for parking goes to the heart of a major problem in London’s NHS:

"We have NHS trusts effectively imposing a stealth tax not just on patients and their visitors but also on staff as well.

"And raising millions of pounds to prop up gaps in the NHS budget and I just don’t think that’s right."