Car park charges an NHS scandal

Am I the only one who thinks the rip-off car park charges at hospitals are a national scandal?

I have just been to Good Hope with an injury which required three stitches (if you could all go "Ahhhhhhhh, poor love", sympathetically, in unison it would be appreciated) and I have only praise for the staff. I came across a smiling nurse who cheerfully cleaned up the wound with minimum pain and a remarkably friendly, excellent Sri Lankan surgeon who stitched me up while we had an interesting chat about everything from cricket to the Tamils.

But when I came to leave, after just over two hours, the car parking charge was £4 which in my book classes as robbery. Ok, it was not exactly the difference between eating and starving tonight but many of the people who park at hospitals are vulnerable and for many £4 is a lot of money. Patients in for tests or treatments have enough to worry about without the cost of car parking. To be given bad news, for instance, and then be charged for the privilege adds insult to injury.

Usually out-patients have no idea how long they will be waiting and I would suspect that two hours or longer is the norm for minor injuries in A&E so £4 is the minimum cost of an accident in modern Sutton Coldfield

Visitors are also fleeced and if you have a friend or relative critically ill the cost of support becomes quite a substantial amount.

And all the levels are set by unelected, unrepresentative, unaccountable quangocrats doing the bidding of the latest health minister and looking to hit the latest targets with the usual knighthoods and gongs over the horizon for those who manage the remarkable feat of keeping their noses both brown and clean.

There will be claims that parking is outsourced so pricing is beyond a hospital's control but that just smacks of those in charge signing a contract with no consideration for patients or visitors only for a quick boost in finances for short term gain. Mind you I suppose we are lucky we don't get charged for a seat in the waiting areas or for the stitches, bandages and plasters used on our injuries - but give them time . . .