STAFF CAR PARKING CHARGES ON BOARD AGENDA

50p per day or £8 per month proposed

Staff will start being charged a maximum of 50p per day to park at our Hospitals if the Trust Board approves the move when it meets next week.

There will also be some changes to the cost of parking for patients too, although for longer periods this will reduce. 

The move follows discussions with unions and the Patient and Public Involvement Forum.  For members of staff the fee will be 50p per day, or £8 per month if deducted from payroll.  Consultants, who currently have access to barrier parking, can retain this privilege at a cost of £25 per month.

For patients, the £1 for one hour rate will remain ; the current £2 charge for 2 to 4 hours will increase to £2.50 .  Over 4 hours - currently charged at £4 up to 6 hours and £6 for over 6 hours - will be standardised at a single rate of £5.  Concessions for longer-term patients or visitors will be available at the monthly staff rate - ie, £8 per month.

The proposals aim to increase revenue whilst simultaneously reducing the demand for car parking and financing the employment of a car parking attendant, to make the Hospital sites safer by controlling where people park. 

Duncan Henderson, Director of HR and author of the paper, said: "The impact of these changes will be to generate income for the Trust which will, in part, be used to manage and improve security of the car parks. It is anticipated that the charges  will generate approximately £100,000 per annum ."

The money raised will be used to offset the costs incurred in the provision of parking, which otherwise have to be deducted from income intended for patient care.  Any additional profit will be used to improve car park security and monitoring, and ploughed back into care for local patients.

The paper, which goes before the Trust Board next Tuesday, October 16 th , comes almost five years after we first started charging patients to park.  The introduction of charges for staff has been considered but rejected on several occasions since then, and as such we are now one of only a few Trusts nationally that do not already impose a charge.  If it is decided to go ahead, the new fees are expected to come into force during November: further details about implementation will follow once the Board has made its decision.

Mick Pilling (Writes)

Yes ; it was 5 years ago when the stealth Car-Park-Charging started, no-one wanted it then but the Scarborough NHS Trust took no notice and implemented it.

The Trust at the time was run by Ms Alison Guy (Chief Executive) she stated; the car-park-charges money would be used for security i.e. CCTV repairs and running at Bridlington Hospital, Security Men, Gardener, Porters and keeping the car park and roads up to standard.....we asked for the money from the car-park-charges to be ring fenced and we were told in no uncertain terms the monies collected would go into the big pot....

Since the Car-Park-Charges have been introduced 5 years ago nothing has been done at Bridlington Hospital no money as been spent, CCTV Cameras remain broken from time to time; Security men were finished, Porters are desperately low, the Gardener was finished and the roads and car park are in a very poor state with pot-holes all over, in Winter there is no-one to do the gritting unless you complain to Scarborough NHS Trust, by then most people and patients have had to negotiate the slipper paths and roads luckily we have not heard of any bad injuries?

So all the monies collected over the past 5 years as gone into the big-pot to help the Trust with its finical debts, so wouldn't you say that the money obtained from car-park-charges was collected under false pretence, it as not been used for what was stated.

WE DO-NOT BELIEVE THAT DOCTORS & NURSES SHOULD HAVE TO PAY THESE CAR PARK CHARGES