The pointy heads at the DoH (Dept of Half arsed ideas) have come up with a spiffing plan to give free parking to inpatients.
Andy Burnham the health Secretary reckons that if labour win the next election the minority of people going to hospitals will gain from “free” parking.
He said patients would get a permit to cover the length of their stay which visitors could use to park for free.
But campaigners said the move did not go far enough as in-patients, who tend to require the most complex care, only represent a fraction of total patients.
Wales and Scotland are both scrapping fees for everyone.
This has already happened in most instances, although under the terms of contracts signed with private firms to fund the building of new hospitals it will take several years to ensure parking is free across the board.
NHS trusts have always maintained that some level of parking charges were necessary to ensure core health funds were not diverted towards managing and maintaining car parks.
But the variation in procedures across the UK has caused controversy among patient groups.
And even though the health secretary has now intervened, many NHS trusts will still not be compelled to act because they have foundation trust status which gives them autonomy from central government.
New legislation would be required if ministers wanted to force this through.
Mr Burnham said the move would make a big difference.
"When people are coming into hospital the last thing they want to worry about is keeping the car park ticket machine up to date.
"It's not right if some people don't get visitors every day because their families can't afford the parking fees."
Got it in one Andy, the solution is simple, do away with all parking charges, or put a cap on them say £1 for all day, then both sides win.
Blatant electioneering isn’t the way to encourage the electorate to vote for a Government that allowed the parking charges to spiral out of control in the first place.
Go and borrow some of Bennie’s (Ben Bradshaw) Lego and play with that instead.
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