So they drove there knowing if they paid they would be doomed? Yes, a pound is useful for some, but I don't regard £1.00 for 4 hours a rip-off, which is the point I was making. Obviously if you are a frequent visitor, then it would mount up, but I doubt visits from 'Robin hood' would be in synch with the needy.


The only point I'm making is that denying hospitals and the tax man of money they might be entitled to, is in effect anti-social (no-matter how well intentioned). The only people who pay in the end are ourselves.

Of course my kindly offer would only be open to people who could clearly be categorised as 'poor souls'...


As for the OBE, I'd take it. As the idea was yours originally a medal for Other Bu*ger's Efforts would be appropriate...

The trouble is a lot of them are frequent visitors. And I never said they would be doomed; just struggle.




Well, I ain't going to lose any sleep over it; and I did pay, after all.

Well, that leaves me out then; but I know a couple of poor souls/ or a million. I'll bring them around to your house.




OK, expect a tickle of your privates by the Queen. Do you like Queens by the way?

You said, 'life or death'.

Hospital parking fees in general.
You should not have to pay to park at a hospital, most do not do it by choice.
It's the PRINCIPLE that is wrong (as in the constant above inflation price rises of the NWN) not the money per se.
Ever had to park at Royal Berks or Radcliffe?

Costs a bl***y fortune! My wife has to go pretty regularly and for 4 hrs it is £6! I recon over the past 7 years I have paid for a new carpark.

Yes I have, and they are expensive, but I don't think Newbury is.

So even when the charge is not excessive, you still support the avoidance of paying to park? Where do you think the money should come from; more taxation?

If we are to introduce principle into the argument, is it right that people who don't use a car to park should subsidies those that do?

I have no problem paying the amount charged at Newbury. For me, it is penny pinching trying to avoid paying. If I was struggling, then I might feel differently.

It's free in Scotland and Wales so why not in England. When taking a child to A&E, speaking from experience, the last thing on your mind is whether you've paid for parking or in the case of Newbury A&E the very cheap parking compared to other places. If you then get referred to Reading or Basingstoke, it then works out to be a very expensive day for some and thats before they've even been treated.

If you have a child that requires A&E of such importance, every minute counts, it is unlikely that Newbury will be able to cater for you. Anyway, I would be surprised if Newbury's carpark would fine someone who was in a genuine emergency.

Like I said, who should pay for it? Should it come out of the health budget?

Like I said the last thing on your mind is parking, if it wasn't I'd suggest the priorities were wrong. Also people sat in waiting rooms waiting on results, thinking my car park ticket runs out soon because the wait was longer than they thought, possibly an extra hassle they could do without.

It is £1.00 for four hours. Like I asked, who should pay for it? Should it come out of the health budget?

That's not the same as saying 25p per hour. Most hospital visits are for much less than 4 hours, but it still costs £1 minimum. If you took the length of the average visit, the rate would work out at far more than that.

That's unless you sit in the café for 3 hours or more to get your money's worth

It must do already because who is paying for Scotland and Wales

A £1.00 an hour is still reasonable compared to else where.

They have decided to divert some of their health care budget to allow people to park for free, it seems; should we do the same?

To be fair, £1 for 4 hours parking is very reasonable. Some other hospitals (I saw a list somewhere, can't remember where) charged like £5 PER HOUR for parking.

Parking charges in hospitals is a form of direct taxation in that if you use it then you pay as opposed to those that don't use it having to subsidize those that do if it was free.
However it is in the noise when you consider the amounts of tax payers money being paid into the health service that finance the healthcare tourists that are drawing on a finite resource and paying nothing towards it. This is what is wrong and needs to be addressed.

Yes. I very rarely goto Hospitals for medical reasons. When I have done the last thing I care about is finding a machine that works and keeping a ticket upto date. You'll find this is the main issue people have. Whether it be £4 an hour or £1.

I'd guess that the majority of users of a carpark are visitors and don't have an emergency to contend with. If they have, there is usually a drop-off point. To use money from the health care budget to pay for people to visit hospitals (who in most cases can afford it I suspect) under such circumstances seems inappropriate use of money to me.