Shropshire hospitals net £6,000 in fines
Wednesday 9th June 2010, 11:20AM BST.
More than 1,000 parking tickets were issued to visitors at Shropshire’s two main hospitals in just one year leading to almost £6,000 in fines, new figures have revealed.
And the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust revealed 19 complaints were made about parking at sites in 2008/09.
The car parks as a whole generated income of nearly £800,000.
The figures were revealed in a national survey by consumer group Which? who collected data from 126 NHS trusts and hospitals in England.
A Which? spokeswoman said the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust featured favourably in the survey with results in the top half of its league table.
Figures for the trust showed 1,150 parking charge notices were issued and that led to penalties of £5,890.
The car parks generated income of £793,000 during 2008/09, the survey found.
Trust spokesman Adrian Osborne said: “These surveys help us to understand how our car parking arrang- ements compare with other NHS hospitals in England.
“Alongside the useful feedback we receive from patients, visitors and staff it helps us to decide how we can continue to improve hospital travel and parking arrangements.
“We also need to support people to use alternatives to travelling by car where appropriate, such as the new cycling facilities launched at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital in March.
“We have also launched a LiftShare website for staff to help them make contact with colleagues and share lifts to work.”
The survey asked how hospitals manage their sites with the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust pointing out it did not clamp cars to control parking and the standard parking charge is £2 for 24 hours.
According to the Which? survey, Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust in Surrey was the top clamper in 2008/9, clamping 1,671 cars. The trust made £1.85 million profit from its car park, the study said.
Meanwhile, Leeds General Infirmary issued 10,330 fines, generating £142,000.
Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals NHS Trust in Hertfordshire had the highest minimum charge in England £4 for two hours of parking.
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Apparently Telford Hospital car park does not make as much money as the Shrewsbury Hospital Car Park in fact word has it the Shrewsbury Car park subsidises the losses made by the Telford Hospital. Worthy argument to move some services back to Telford to enable both car parks to be going concerns one would think.
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1150 parking charge notices raise £5890.That suggests that the fines are only £5.50.
As it costs £2 to park , it is clearly worth risking a fine.I suspect someone has the figures wrong.
The bigger issue is the outrageous taxation of visitors to the ill.
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I recently had to go for a scan; I was there for 14mins; Car Park charge £2.
Can’t afford to be sick at that rate!
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DISGUSTING – THESE POOR PEOPLE HAVING TO ALREADY DEAL WITH VISITING SICK RELATIVES HAVING TO PAY FOR THE PLEASURE!!?? THEN BEING FINED GOD KNOWS WHAT IF THEY RUN OVER?!!! ITS NOT ALWAYS EASY TO LEAVE SOMEONE YOU CARE ABOUT TO FIND CHANGE GO AND STICK SOME MONEY IN A METER. WELCOME TO BRITAIN! WHAT HAPPENED TO THIS COUNTRY EH??
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How much of this money went to the hospitals and how much did the parking enforcement company get?
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Every member of staff at RSH has to pay £90 per year for the privilage to park.However if you arrive later than 8.45am there are NO spaces left,so you either pay £2.00 for the patients car park or risk getting a £40.00 fine.So a rough estimate sugests that 20% of the total fines are from NHS staff!!! How can this be fare?
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I suspect that some of these ‘fines’ were in respect of woefully parked (or perhaps abandoned is more appropriate)vehicles.
If memory serves me right weren’t the charges imposed at the RSH to deter people from leaving their vehicles there and catching the bus into town.
Perhaps if people were more responsible and public spirited these charges would never had been imposed, I’m just off to knit some more fog whilst that happens.
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I had to take my little boy to A%E at Telford a few days ago. Every space was full as usual. The kind parking attendant said I could park on the grass verge…..As long as I paid £2 for the privilage!! I agree with Danny Porker (is that you real name?), Having to stump up £2 when you have the worry of a sick relative IS disgusting!!!
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Blimey, some people will moan about anything!
I can’t believe people on here are whinging about paying a mere £2 (for up to 24 hours) to park their car.
We should be grateful that we live in a nation where the sick don’t need to worry about how to meet their medical bills.
I have an appointment at PRH next week and the £2 it will cost me to park my car is a drop in the ocean against the cost to the NHS for the consultant’s time, scanner costs etc.
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Car parks cost money to maintain – what would you rather, the hospital uses the money for treating patients or it uses it for parking? At least if they are charging for parking the money comes from people using the parking. As someone correctly pointed out charges are often placed to stop people parking who aren’t visiting the hospital. Don’t they have buses to hospitals these days??
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it’s amazing that all the money that comes in from parking at the prh people still have to park on muddy grass verges as they don’t have enough spaces.
how many people get fines for arriving at a&e
at 10 oclock at night and are still there hours later when the ticket ran out at midnight?
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