15th
November 2007
Health Centre Parking Charges Could be
Next, McNeil warns Parliament
Patients could be charged for visiting
Greenock Health Centre unless NHS parking charge policies are reviewed, MSP for
Greenock and Inverclyde, Duncan McNeil, has warned MSPs.
Speaking in a
Member’s Business debate on the subject of car parking charges at Glasgow’s
Stobhill Hospital, Mr McNeil also demanded that proper consultation and an
assessment of any car park abuse be carried out at every hospital where charges
were proposed.
“In June
2006, the Health Committee raised the issue of access – another issue that
angers me,” he told the Chamber. “We
are pushing ahead with car parking charges in and around our hospitals, but I
see no such enthusiasm for dealing with the general issues of travel access to
hospitals and health centres throughout the west of Scotland.
“There is
no guidance on how health boards and various other agencies should deal with
access. How soon will it be before
patients are charged for the use of car parks at, say, a busy health centre as
well? I hope that we can stop such
a move, and I hope that the Cabinet Secretary recognises – I am sure she does
– the seriousness of the situation.
“If we can,
let us consider car parking charges and other such access issues as part of the
broadest consideration of access. We have to think about how the most vulnerable
people can access health services at their health centres and hospitals wherever
they may be throughout the west of Scotland.”
On the need
for case-by-case consultation when considering car park charges Mr McNeil told
the Telegraph:
“The
Minister backs a health board position which tries to stop commuters abusing
hospital car-parks in parts of Glasgow by imposing car parking charges at
Inverclyde Royal. That’s
ludicrous.”
Earlier, he
had told the Chamber:
“I concede
that some hospitals have suffered from abuse of their car parks. Such abuse has
to be tackled, but I do not know that charges are the right way to do so.
“Safety and
security issues have to be addressed when they arise. However, for Stobhill, the
Inverclyde Royal and other hospitals, a case-by-case, hospital-by-hospital
consultation before the introduction of car parking charges is essential.”
He added:
“It is a
scandal that car parking charges will be rolled out across the health board area
– and particularly in the IRH – without consultation. No
one has consulted the local community, no one has consulted the local authority,
no one has consulted the local users groups and no one has consulted people in
the neighbourhood. I ask the
cabinet secretary to use her powers and to insist that a full and proper
consultation take place, so that issues can at least be aired.”
ENDS
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