MSP plans Bill to put brakes on parking charges at ERI

Published on Monday 12 January 2009 09:12

A LABOUR MSP today launched proposals which would outlaw car parking charges at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.

The ERI was excluded from the Scottish Government's ban on hospital parking fees, which came into effect at the start of the year, as ministers said it would cost too much to rewrite the contract signed as part of private finance initiative to build and run it.

Now Labour backbencher Paul Martin is planning to bring a Member's Bill to the Scottish Parliament to make it illegal to charge for parking at any NHS site, including PFI hospitals. He said it would be up to health boards and the Government to negotiate how the requirement for free parking was implemented.

At the moment, the ERI, Glasgow Royal Infirmary and Ninewells in Dundee all have car parks operated under PFI contracts where charges are still levied, but at least one PFI hospital, Hairmyres in Lanarkshire, has free parking.

Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon has said she would like health boards to negotiate with the private firms involved to end charging or bring the costs down, but estimated it would cost "tens of millions" to end the contracts early.

Mr Martin said: "At the moment, the Government has suggested health boards should withdraw parking charges and they have agreed to that, but there is no legislation to prevent them using their own autonomy to reintroduce them in the future.

"This Bill will provide absolute clarity – there will be no parking charges at all at any sites."

He said his Bill would not single out PFI hospitals, but simply require that parking at all NHS sites would be free.

James McCaffery, chief operating officer for acute services at NHS Lothian, said: "We are currently in discussions with Consort about car parking at the ERI."