| By John Edwards Free Press Bridlington
STAFF, already reeling from the uncertainty over job losses and service cuts at Bridlington Hospital, have been dealt another blow. They will now be charged 50p per day to park on-site, after managers approved the idea on Tuesday.
Alternatively, they can choose to have £8 deducted from their monthly pay packets and consultants will have to fork out £25 per month for their secure, barrier car park.
Patient and visitor charges are also being increased from early November.
Duncan Henderson, director of human resources at Scarborough and North East Yorkshire Healthcare NHS Trust, 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.
"While it is difficult to predict the uptake as far as staff are concerned, it is anticipated that the charges will generate approximately £90,000 per annum."
The trust insists it is one of only a handful of trusts in the UK which does not already charge staff for parking, and says it has decided against bringing in the idea on several occasions in recent years.
Patient charges were introduced in 2002. The existing £1 for one hour rate is remaining the same, but up to four hours will now cost £2.50 instead of £2.
At present there are separate charges for four-to-six hours (£4) and over six hours (£6) but these will be combined, so all stays of over four hours will be charged at £5.
Patient and visitor changes will be introduced in early November, staff charges could take longer to implement, because the process will involve issuing passes, adjusting pay-and-display machines and making the changes to payrolls.
The charges have been unpopular with the public and Mick Pilling, chairman of Save Bridlington Hospital Campaign Action Group, said: "Since the car park charges were introduced five 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 and by then most people and patients have had to negotiate the slippery paths and roads – luckily we have not heard of any bad injuries.
"So all the money collected over the past five years has gone into the big pot to help the trust with its financial debts.
"The money obtained from car park charges was collected under false pretence, it has not been used for what was stated."
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