The free Hospital Parking debate

Free parking at hospitals is the norm in Wales and Scotland as governments pander to the popular demand. Increasingly there is a demand for England to follow suit. None of this is without consequences and it is only too apparent in Scotland and Wales that there is no such thing as a free parking space. Someone is paying for it!

Is it right that dwindling healthcare budgets should be used to provide parking facilities for those who choose to drive to hospital and yet those who arrive by public transport continue to pay? Shouldn’t healthcare budgets be used to provide healthcare?

Little Choice
The big difference between parking at hospitals and other healthcare facilities and parking for business and leisure is that often there is little choice. Few people choose to go to hospital and even fewer have a choice of which hospital. These are facilities used most when we are unwell or seeking medical advice or obtaining treatment for long-term conditions.

At best we are visiting someone who is unwell. Like so many other places the demand for parking spaces at hospitals exceeds the supply and therefore it needs to be rationed and managed. How best then do we manage it? How do you prioritise allocation of spaces and use? How is it paid for? What is the impact on the community served by the hospital? Is it a good neighbour? These are all topics for debate and resolution.

In 2010, the BPA launched its Hospital Parking Charter, which sets out the importance of offering a high standard of management and customer service, reflecting the needs of all car park users including patients, visitors and staff and with proper and adequate access controls and fair and reasonable enforcement where this is required.

A health check
There is, of course, much more to the Charter and it’s now undergoing a ‘Health Check’ itself. We want to make certain that it’s fit for purpose. We want to encourage more to sign up and to abide by the principles of the Charter. We want to make the Charter easier to understand, simple to promote and above all ensure that its intentions are delivered. This work continues through 2011 and if you would like to help, do contact the BPA.

Special interest group
In support of this work we have initiated a Health Care Parking Special Interest Group, which brings together people in NHS facilities, with parking operators and service providers to share knowledge and experience. It became very clear to me at a recent meeting of this group that there are some serious challenges and yet also some simple solutions. If only people knew about them.

There is best practice ‘out there’.

Our role at the BPA is to raise standards, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the healthcare environment. Balancing the needs of hospital patients and visitors, staff and healthcare professionals, and ensuring that access to healthcare is fair and cost-effective, requires courage and determination. Parking managers at healthcare sites across the UK face these challenges every day. Working alone they seek to resolve their problems locally, often challenged by local media and, indeed, their own colleagues.

Sharing knowledge
Working together through the BPA Health Care Parking SIG we can collectively share knowledge and best practice, as well as campaign for better recognition of the services provided and the need for them to be properly funded. The health of the nation depends upon the NHS. The NHS depends upon the parking sector to help ensure that access to its facilities is fair and appropriate, properly managed and adequately funded.

To sign up to the BPA’s Charter for Hospital Parking visit www.britishparking.co.uk/Charter-for-Hospital-Parking

For more information
Tel: 01444 447 300
fax: 01444 454 105
alison.t@britishparking.co.uk
www.britishparking.co.uk

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