PARKING CHARGE 'TAX ON THE ILL'

IN just one year Coventry’s University Hospital raked in a whopping £2.7 million in car park charges.

It was the second-highest amount taken from patients and visitors across the country.

Figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats under the Freedom of Information Act revealed the super-hospital, in Walsgrave, came second only to Addenbrooke’s, in Cambridge, which made £2.8million between 2007 and 2008.

University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) signed a Private Finance Initiative in 2002 to private company ISS Mediclean – it manages the car park and is in charge of the associated income and expenditure.

Since 2007, patients, visitors and staff have had to fork out between £3 for one hour’s parking to £10 for the day.

Councillor Susanna Dixon (Con, Wyken) has fought the plans. She even dressed up as highway robber Dick Turpin to highlight the fees.

She brands the high charges “a tax on the ill” and thinks they should be scrapped.

“It is indefensible on every level to charge on supposed free health care,” she added.

“It is a licence for some private company for people who have no choice about being in hospital for treatment and a complete indictment, and the people in charge should be ashamed of themselves.

“It is a tax on the ill and the company can get away with it because they know they have a captive audience.”

Labour MP Geoffrey Robinson also wants to see a reduction in the fee.

The Coventry North West representative said: “It is a huge amount of money and it is the second-highest amount in the country so it needs to be reviewed and reduced.

“We don’t want any money to be taken from the medical services.

“What we want is for the private company to scale down the costs quite considerably and make a reduction so that members of the public don’t have to pay so much.”

The NHS in England made a whopping £111million in parking charges altogether.

Charges have been abolished in all but three hospitals in Scotland and are being completely phased out in Wales.

A UHCW spokesman said: “ISS Mediclean receives all of the income generated by car parking, but also takes on board all the costs, including full repairs and maintenance over a 35-year period.

“We do our best to help a large proportion of our visitors and patients by having our own concession scheme in place which includes free parking for patients who attend regularly for intravenous chemotherapy treatment, renal dialysis patients and for the parents who need to stay in hospital overnight to accompany their sick children.

“We also operate an NHS travel concession scheme for patients on income support and patients are well supported by public transport routes onto site.”

Earlier this year ISS announced it would abolish parking fees for Christmas Day in 2009, 2010 and review the scheme for 2011.

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