NHS board loses £60,000 a month as parking fees lifted

Published on Tuesday 18 August 2009 09:40

THE lifting of parking charges at hospitals is costing NHS Lothian more than £60,000 a month, it was revealed today.

Figures have shown that the health board used to be able to count on around 200,000 per quarter from charging patients and visitors at both the Western General and St John's Hospital in Livingston.

But since both facilities were forced to abandon their charges by the Scottish Government in January, the cost to the health board has been revealed.

Privately, NHS Lothian bosses were furious at health secretary Nicola Sturgeon's decision to remove charging. They argued that it would lead to congestion on already busy acute hospital sites and make traffic management trickier. Fears were also expressed about the hospitals becoming virtual park-and-ride facilities.

for people wanting to travel into the city centre from Craigleith, or use the wealth of retail facilities in Livingston.

But now that the cost has been exposed – under the Freedom of Information Act – another reason behind their reluctance to comply has been revealed.

While the health board thinks it was wrong to lose charging, patients' groups said they never should have been there in the first place.

John Jack, director of facilities for NHS Lothian, said: "We have a duty to maintain car parks across all 14 hospital sites in NHS Lothian to ensure that patients have continued access to healthcare within a safe environment. The revenue generated from car parking before the abolition of car parking charges equated to around 204,735 per quarter and was reinvested in maintenance and upkeep of our sites.

"NHS Lothian is now required to find that money from within its budget in order to maintain the highest standards."

The ERI still has parking charges because it was built under a PFI arrangement.

Earlier this year, the Evening News reported that pressure was being applied by politicians to lift the charges at Little France too.

But health chiefs warned at that stage it would be a "disaster" for both patients and visitors.

Since the change in January they have already noticed a rise in complaints at the Western General and St John's because of the new set-up.

Mr Jack told Glasgow Springburn MSP Paul Martin - who called for the ERI to lift charges - that it wasn't the NHS's job to provide free parking, but to instead make sure people's health and wellbeing was looked after.

When Consort had been approached by Holyrood to lift charges, it had demanded 14.5 million.

Dr Jean Turner, director of the Scotland Patients Association, said: "It always has been unfair to charge patients to park in hospitals. I don't know where this money would have gone, but the NHS isn't there to fleece people for parking. I can't imagine these car parks cost too much to maintain, you don't see many attendants.

"Perhaps if they'd shown it was going in to buying new cancer equipment people would have been more sympathetic."