Forum Topic

Hospital parking rip-off

Reading the front page story about ealing charges £3.50 for four hours as a minimum - which sounds extortionate - recently visiting my father in Kingston hospital - it's £1.80 for the first hour there and goes up steeply so the four hours there costs even more. It's such a rip-off and ot want the ill and their relatives need at a stressful time.And don't tell me to go by bus - just not practical from Acton to Kingston and back.

Sara Nathan ● 6570d21 Comments

But the money raised from parking can be spent on primary care. Why complain about the cost of 'extras'. Kingston, okay, but Ealing is served by numerous buses.

Susan Kelly ● 6570d

'tisn't though - according to the story, it's spent on "security".

Sara Nathan ● 6570d

"Ealing is served by numerous buses"-  Not from South Ealing or Northfields it isn't  -  no direct bus routes to Ealing Hospital from here  - and to anybody who expects us to be willing to change buses en route and pay twice for the 'privilege' in addition to the severe inconvenience, don't call us we'll call you.I for one am sick to the back teeth of your sort of Marie Antionette dismissal of the well-founded grievances of those who have NO satisfactory public transport provision, are never going to get it, and consequently have no serious alternative to the car  -  we've had this on other threads.Nobody asked the authorities to stick our main hospital out in an inaccessible location in the middle of nowhere; but since they insisted on doing so it behoves them to cater fully for our reasonable transport needs at reasonable charges  -  not fail to provide adequate car parking and charge extortionate fees.

Chris Veasey ● 6569d

Marie Antoinette? I live in South Ealing myself and have been to Ealing Hospital by bus more than once; the last time I could hardly walk following a knee sprain but I still made it without a lot of whingeing.

Susan Kelly ● 6569d

All I can say is you're easily pleased. Others have higher expectations.

Chris Veasey ● 6569d

And the Scots have, rightly in my view, banned hospital car parking charges.My mum, aged 77, is treking from her home to Kingston twice daily to visit: once by bus and later by car because she is so outraged by the charges. I, and my family, have to go by car. There really is no other way...so we are paying charges between us, every day. We can afford it I suppose but it seems such a tax on health and family feeling at a time when people are most vulnerable.What did people think of the article in the Mail today about the woman who has to take her son to Great Ormond Street all the time and is treated with no discretion at all by the parking enforcers? That seems a bit off too.

Sara Nathan ● 6569d

Ealing Hospital ....?                                    Mental Health Hotline                 

Hugh Telford ● 6569d

Regarding the last part of the message...  I've forgotten what I was going to say...Oh yes! LOL.

Alan Brainsby ● 6569d

At Hammersmith Hosp you can park in the hospital grounds 7am - 9pm Mon-Sun for £1.80 per hour, or in the LBHF Scrubs car park at the same hourly rate but free after 6.30 and Sat/Sun. My other half has been in and out of the Hsmth since June and it has cost me over £200 in parking fees plus a £40 ticket, yes, I could get the bus, but she cannot! Blue badge now applied for!

Iain Muir ● 6569d

And that's if you can find a place - which is often difficult. I go there by bike - by far the most reliable method but not so great for the sick and disabled.

Sara Nathan ● 6569d

At Hammersmith Hospital the first worry is trying to decide how long your need to park for, in advance.  Then when you are kept waiting for 1 hour and 20 minutes before being seen (as happened on Thursday) you have to decide have you got time to get back to the car, some 10 minures walk away, to put yet more money on and will you miss your spot while you are gone.  In my family we now tend to go in pairs when possible, one for the appointment the other to deal with parking !!

Maggie Dodge ● 6568d

I briefly worked at Ealing Hosp for a few months and my recollection was that the parking was "policed" by a third party contractor. I think they provide security only for the parking and not the hospital. Due to the lack of parking I believe that car usage & parking is discouraged and high fees play a part in this.The lack of parking at the hospital is chronic - even for staff. I thought a simple solution would be to build a multi-storey car park beside the hospital on the site of the current staff carpark - next to the river. When I asked about this I was told that apparently this would not get planning permission, but I can't see why....EH is not exactly a masterpiece of architecture and even a 4 storey car park would not be more of an eyesore than the hospital. Maybe a good use for all the excess CCTV parking fines in the borough would be to pay for the hospital parking and improvements - at least those fined would somewhat feel that their money was going to a worthwhile cause rather than to some other council initiative.

Niall Connolly ● 6568d

"I think they provide security only for the parking" sorry if I am being dim, but what does that phrase mean?

Maggie Dodge ● 6567d

What I meant was that they managed the car parking only and the security of the cars/payment machines. Also responsible for enforcement (clamping etc). My understanding was that the Hospital security was managed by a different company.

Niall Connolly ● 6567d

They built a big multi-storey car park at Northwick Park and that building is marginally (!!!) better looking than Ealing hospital........Another solution would be to knock that whole disgusting, disgraceful place down and start again like they have at West Mid. It would hardly be a loss to the community

Penny Crocker ● 6567d

Perhaps the solution to getting to a hospital, or indeed any other place with limited/expensive parking, would be to go, as the Anericans say, intermodal.Drive to near a bus stop which has a route to the destination, park, and then continue the journey by bus. Obviously doing the reverse when returning home.It's not an original idea. Many thousands of commuters do it every working day, and is probably why CPZs have been introduced.

Alan Brainsby ● 6567d

Given that it's currently impossible to get a parking space at Ealing Hospital, perhaps extortionate parking charges are a good thing - it'll encourage people on to the bus or what ever and leave more spaces for sick Northfields residents who are too ill to bike.  Personally, I always bike unless I'm too ill and then I taxi.

Simon Measures ● 6566d

Hi, just catching up on the comments here about the charges at Ealing Hospital.We had to go last night (Saturday) at 5:30PM when the carpark is mostly empty but pay & display is still in operation. (In the past we have had to pay at 2:30AM with sick kids).Anyway, the pay&display machine had a problem in that my first 50p coin was not rejected but not counted - I found after putting in a £1 coin. So I pressed cancel to get the coins back & start again. But no refund!I started again but ran out of coins and within less than 30 secs of putting in the last coin, it automatically cancelled the payment and again NO REFUND.I saw the security staff at the A&E entrance who said to talk the security guy checking the machines as he could return my money. But no, he doesn't return anything "contact Ealing Hospital" and he wasn't interested that the machines were not refunding coins when the transaction was cancelled.Maybe it is not in their interest for unpaid coins to be refunded. The hospital or A.another must be collecting a healthy bonus with all the extra coins above the level of parking tickets issued.Is there not some legal obligation on the hospital to have operational machines or at least to quickly fix them when reported as faulty rather than collect the extra? Surely keeping the extra money and not refunding is getting dodgy?

Grant McAllister ● 6506d

In all likelihood, the hospital will disclaim any reponsibility for the car-parking at all. Many/most hospitals subcontract the management of the car-parking to people like APCOA and won't answer any queries at all.Three cheers for the Scots abolishing charges in hospital car parks.I reckon visiting my dad for the six weeks before he died last month cost well over £200 in parking fees. Particularly  infuriating when we, his family, were doing so much of his nursing care and were therefore there at least 12 hours a day between us. There were never enough hospital staff to do the care-taking more than basically.

Sara Nathan ● 6506d

No car park at all at the University College Hospital in Euston Road and extortionate fees at the pathetically few parking meters in the roads around which you had to pay for by card (and in the congestion zone).

Julia Hunt ● 6506d

The other problem too with parking at Ealing Hopsital is if you pay your £3.50 and do not stay for the duration you cannot pass the ticket onto someone else as you are required to key in your registation number.  Wasn't there a programme about extortinate hospital parking fees recently? And was Ealing Hospital on there?On another note, when I took my son to A&E earlier this year I was in a mad panic and had no money for parking.  A very kind lady on reception lent me the fee.  I then had to stay in hospital with my son for four days and the nurse issued a special note to place on my car to avoid paying any fees.

Diane Gill ● 6504d