Sandwell hospital parking fee increase ridiculous says group

The proposals to change car parking costs at hospitals managed by Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS trust would see a hike in the cost of concessions from £2 up to £2.50 at some of their sites.

The visitor tariff for every band of charges at Sandwell and City hospital sites would also increase by 10p each.

Brian Childs, a member of Sandwell patient group Upper GI Blues and regular visitor to the trust's hospital sites, said: "The proposed increase in charges are absolutely ridiculous, they are already too high as it is. It's just grabbing money off people to pay for shortfalls in their budget. Each time i visit I can't see how they are spending money on parking services, so it's got be going to fund something else.

"It's completely unfair to charge patients who sometimes have to wait a long time to see their consultant."

Visitors who stay for up to six hours at Rowley Regis Hospital would see fees jump from £2 to £2.50. The fees for up to 24 hours will stay at £5 at the Moor Street facility.

Despite the increase, chiefs at the trust are anticipating losing £10,000 on parking fees this year.

Bosses have acknowledged in papers that the hospital's resident consultants would lose priority parking, but the anticipated benefit would be the increase in satisfaction among the 30-35 staff who would benefit by being able to park next to their work place.

Councillor Bawa Dhallu, who represents residents living next to Sandwell Hospital in West Bromwich said: "These changes are going to affect local residents living near to the hospital. I have a lot of sympathy for these people who struggle to even park outside their own home. I don't think there should be any increase in parking charges at any of the hospitals."

Changes at Sandwell and City mean charges for one hour would increase from £2.50 to £2.60 and for a two-hour period, visitors would be charged £2.60 from April instead of £2.50, and so on there will be similar changes for every band.

The maximum charge for any stay ranging from more than six hours up to 24 hours would also increase from £5 to £5.10.

It was recently revealed that patients paid thousands of pounds in fines to hospitals for overstaying or not parking properly last year.

The information exposed under a freedom of information request revealed that in the 2012/2013 financial year, £2,072.22 of fines were collected by Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust.

At the time, West Bromwich MP Tom Watson described the fines and charges as a 'hidden tax' on patients and hospital visitors.