News

Should Heatherwood hospital visitors have to pay to park?

By Hugh Fort
November 03, 2009

Charging visitors to park at Heatherwood is being probed after the hospitals trust made a £16,000 loss on car parking.

Heatherwood and Wexham Park Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust received £752,000 in parking charges from April 2008 to March this year, but spent £768,000 running and maintaining its car parks.

The Joint East Berkshire Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee has launched an investigation into how effective a money-maker it is to charge people when they visit the Ascot hospital and Wexham Park in Slough.

A letter to the trust’s chief executive Julie Burgess from the committee’s chairman, Cllr Arvind Dhaliwal of Slough Borough Council, raises questions over the trust’s spending.

The letter reveals the trust has a contract with CP Plus Ltd car park management, which it pays £567,000 a year to run its car parks, but had also forked out £65,000 on police patrols, £81,000 for maintenance to the car park barrier, £38,000 for repairs, and £11,200 on consultancy.

At a meeting last month, the committee, which includes members from Bracknell Forest, Slough and Windsor & Maidenhead borough councils, formed a working group to examine whether parking made enough money to justify the contract.

The trust made a profit on parking the previous year, but the committee remains unconvinced both of the moral and financial value of charging hospital customers to park.

Councillor Tony Virgo, who represents North Ascot on Bracknell Forest Council, sits on the committee.

After the meeting, he said: “CP Plus has an eight-year contract and we have formed this working group to look into whether the small profits they have made in the past are worth it.

“The ethical problem is charging people to pay when they have had to rush to hospital and are frantically worried.

“They also don’t know how long they will be there for and often have to make a detour to ensure they have enough money to pay.

“The profit is quite small and we need to work out if all the hassle is worth it or not.”

The group will report back to the committee on Thursday, December 10, at 7.30pm at Maidenhead Town Hall in St Ives Road.

Should visitors and patients have to pay to park at Heatherwood? Leave your comments below or email editorial@bracknellstandard.co.uk

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Simply put, the income from tickets isn't covering the costs of maintaining the car parks. I have no problems with visitors paying to park, but it's different for patients... you may go in and buy a one-hour pay and display ticket, then end up having to stay for 4 due to the long wait. If fines/clamping was imposed that could be very unfair. And how would you prove if you're a visitor or a patient?

I also often have the trouble of not having much change with me as I don't tend to carry cash, so what happens if I get there and don't have the right amount to pay for a ticket?

If they do keep the charging for the car park they need to revise how they're going to manage the costs of maintaining it too.

CMA
04/11/2009 at 12:28

Why on earth have they allowed the hospital to make a £16,000 loss on parking? Is no-one checking the balance sheet?

If the money is reinvested correctly (to boost departments or buy equipment)and the books balanced there is no reason why patients and visitors shouldn't be expected to pay to park.