Colin James Posted December 28, 2017 Report Posted December 28, 2017 Hereford County Hospital has the second most expensive car park in the country! Hospital trusts in England made a record £174M from car parking fees last year. The Patients Association has criticised the figures, saying it's a charge for being ill. Hereford County Hospital has been named as the second most expensive hospital car park in the country. Costs are extortionate at £3.50 for a one hour visit!
ragwert Posted December 28, 2017 Report Posted December 28, 2017 Between me & missus we have probably been here well over 60 times in the last 11 weeks including this morning after my accident and various illnesses after accident.The missus bought me to hospital/a&e drop off then parked in Morrisons most of the time with their pay and display meters not working half the time.We probably saved well over £250 not parking in the hospital.
Ubique Posted December 28, 2017 Report Posted December 28, 2017 Ragwert , hope you make a full recovery and 2018 brings you both good health and happiness. i always use Morrisons when I have to visit the hospital - there has ,in the last a lot of burbling by " people in Authority " about sorting out the pricing to no apparent effect . Wonder where the most expensive car parking is , probably in London area.
adamski Posted December 28, 2017 Report Posted December 28, 2017 Ragwert , hope you make a full recovery and 2018 brings you both good health and happiness. i always use Morrisons when I have to visit the hospital - there has ,in the last a lot of burbling by " people in Authority " about sorting out the pricing to no apparent effect . Wonder where the most expensive car parking is , probably in London area. I saw this on the BBC and thought you should see it: NHS parking charges: Hospitals made £174m in a year - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-42503230
adamski Posted December 28, 2017 Report Posted December 28, 2017 The most expensive place for a one-hour stay was the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford at £4
Colin James Posted December 28, 2017 Author Report Posted December 28, 2017 I saw this on the BBC and thought you should see it: NHS parking charges: Hospitals made £174m in a year - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-42503230 Thank you
DILLIGAF Posted December 28, 2017 Report Posted December 28, 2017 They even issue tickets to staff with permits! One employee lined them up on the dashboard with a note “Take it up with the management†It was a Lamborghini or Ferrari and targeted.
Colin James Posted December 29, 2017 Author Report Posted December 29, 2017 They even issue tickets to staff with permits! One employee lined them up on the dashboard with a note “Take it up with the management†It was a Lamborghini or Ferrari and targeted. No surprises there mate. Who owns the car park at Hereford Hospital?
megilleland Posted December 29, 2017 Report Posted December 29, 2017 I found this piece crediting this company with the management of the car parks. How is parking at the hospital run?The hospital does not directly manage the car parks or the contract that covers the running of them, and therefore income from car parking fees does not contribute to hospital finances. The car parking charges at the County Hospital are set by Car Parking Plus, the company which runs the car parks on behalf of Mercia Healthcare. This company is Wye Valley NHS Trust’s PFI (Private Finance Initiative) partner. Also found this 2013 FOI request. These car parking charges are entwined with the PFI contract set up years ago. Various articles of complaint in the Hereford Times over these years and also raised in Parliament by Jesse Norman. Amazing that such a simple matter as parking has created a cash cow for several private companies.
DILLIGAF Posted December 30, 2017 Report Posted December 30, 2017 Yes CPP. Both wifee and I work there, but we can only have one permit -albeit for both cars. However we cannot park both cars together! We had to apply for a permit jumping through hoops to ascertain valid reasons for issue. As wifee does school run and 9-4 and I work nights and out of hours we applied for an on-site permit. Declined. We were then told that we would need to reapply for offsite parking instead; instead of cpp just issuing offsite anyway. However all parking spaces are on first come first served basis. I believe the ratio to be 25/1 on permit/space. So cpp coining it in from permits alone. From experience if you’re not parked by 7am you’re very unlikely to get a space until after 6pm! My next gripe will be more secure bike parking as the cages again fill early am and as so many get pinched from outside but nothing is being done. Cpp are onto this too.....
ragwert Posted January 9, 2018 Report Posted January 9, 2018 The Hereford County Hospital has been sold to car park operator NCP in the first deal of its kind, although other such sales might soon become commonplace if all goes well according to City financial experts. From March all patients at the Hospital will face the prospect of feeding bedside meters at a rate of £25 per day for the duration of their illnesses, with outpatients attending clinics paying a fee upon arrival at reception desks and then topping up hourly if their appointment is running late. A team of wardens will be employed to monitor the new arrangements, with those patients staying beyond their allocated times being wheeled off the ward into adjacent corridors then transferred onto trolleys until they or their relatives stock up on credit again. A spokesman for for the trust said, ‘we see this as an exciting opportunity to reform hospital stays root and branch, as it will actively help to flush out work-shy and shiftless malingerers. No-one will want to stay with us if it’s costing them their hard earned cash, and bed-blocking will become a thing of the past. That’s the beauty of the free market in action.’Health Minister Jeremy Hunt is said to be watching developments with considerable interest. A departmental source commented: ‘This is exciting stuff and rolling the concept out nationally just may be the answer to this never-ending Health Service conundrum.
adamski Posted January 10, 2018 Report Posted January 10, 2018 To be fair Ragwert, that might just work.....
Ubique Posted January 10, 2018 Report Posted January 10, 2018 So NCP now own Hereford Hospital , call me thick but I cannot believe that what Ragwert has posted is true - if it is a joke you should have kept it for another couple of months !
DILLIGAF Posted January 10, 2018 Report Posted January 10, 2018 According to plans NCP are actually placing a ticket barrier at the end of Stonebow Road. 10minutes Free entry, Pay on exit. This will help elevate the current issues of patients being unexpectedly delayed and receiving tickets. The 8-10 residents will get a free pass, and a staff ID passes. I can only imagine that this will only cause extra delay on Commercial Road. Money Talks.
Ubique Posted January 11, 2018 Report Posted January 11, 2018 Ragwort , I must apologies for even thinking you would post a joke on the parking at the Hospital . I have been in contact with NCP , they have now added to yours and DILLIGAF comments the fact that they will be running a Valet Service whereby you drive upto the hospital for your appointment / visit etc and hand your keys over to a waiting employee of NCP who will drive your car away to an apparent cheaper parking location , a few minutes before you leave the hospital you phone a dedicated phone no. Give the code number the parking valet gave you , the Control Room will tell you how much to pay ,which you do and within a short period of time your car will be returned . The hurdle they have to get over is Morrisons and neighbours living around the hospital because one of the plans NCP are working on is using street parking and Morrison's car park .
ragwert Posted January 14, 2018 Report Posted January 14, 2018 Theresa May has outlined her plans for solving both the funding needs problem of the NHS and the future of the environment. From 2019 colostomy bags used in England and Wales will be subject to a 5p charge and a 25p deposit will be applied to plastic urinal bottles. All money raised will be recycled back into the NHS leaving much needed tax payers’ money to be used for more important initiatives such as compensating landowners in the path of HS2, the modernisation of Westminster Hall and more Trident missiles.Speaking from a platform of discarded shopping trollies and car tyres at the London Wetland Centre, the Prime Minister denounced calls for extra funding for the NHS and proposed new ways of funding which would benefit both patients and the environment alike. ‘Sea mammals including dolphins and turtles will no longer be subjected to dying in NHS corridors or flapping around and clogging up hospital beds, which is good news for local communities and other forms of pond life.We have proved that recycling works as evidenced by the recent recycling of Jeremy Hunt who has got a minimum of 500 years ministerial life in front of him as it will take that much time for him to decompose.’Rumours that the Secretary of State for Health is to levy a 5p charge on NHS body bags during the much anticipated flu-crisis have yet to be confirmed.
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