Parking charges to be brought back for NHS staff

[Fambo Number Mive]

So after putting themselves at risk of a deadly virus each day and working even more extra hours than usual, a government that spends £900,000 on repainting Johnson's plane wants NHS staff to pay up to £70 a day to park where they work:

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-government-urged-to-u-turn-over-car-parking-charges-for-nhs-staff-12023502

Public transport restrictions will probably be in place throughout 2020 and into 2021, meaning that even in those few areas where there is reasonable public transport more NHS staff will be driving to work than usual. Many NHS staff don't live within walking distance of their work and cycling isn't safe in many areas, especially during the pandemic when people are often driving faster due to the lack of traffic.

Claps won't be accepted by car park ticket machines, much as Tory supporters think NHS staff should be quiet and grateful for the clapping.

[Jockice]

Cunts. That's it.

[Barry Admin]

But muh economy.

[Zetetic]

The English NHS.

The main problem is this doesn't go far enough - if you're going to introduce charges at hospital car parks on the basis that you're using a market-based approach to encourage efficient use of a scarce resource, you need to be far more responsive to changing to levels of demand. Charges should be greatly increased around shift-handover times, for example, ensuring that car parking spaces are obtained by those staff members who are most in need or best placed to use them, instead of the current socialised approach where even low-value/pay employees can sometimes park.

[BlodwynPig]

Premium, ads-free bays for just 120 pounds a day! "Glam up your parking experience with our Deluxe Parking Bays. Gold and pink trim, meet and greet with the parking attendant, special door opening service (Weekends only), complimentary umbrella if raining, payment machine direct to your car".

Early in the pandemic I thought, naively, that this is it - key workers would now be cherished and we would see nurses, junior doctors, hell even cleaners and caterers, being lauded by the Government with the requisite hiking in their salaries. Even for a cynic like me, I felt a change in the air.... fucking christ, how wrong I was. If you saw the talking heads from NHS management/right wing think tanks on GMTV, you know there are only one protected class in Britain.

[evilcommiedictator]

Stolen from Dead Ringers, but can they pay by clapping?

[shiftwork2]

Even for a cynic like me, I felt a change in the air

I thought there was 0% chance of that happening.  Yes some of them died but they got some claps and now they can fuck off. 

The English NHS.

Yes.

[BlodwynPig]

Stolen from Dead Ringers, but can they pay by clapping?

Last line of OP

[BlodwynPig]

I thought there was 0% chance of that happening.  Yes some of them died but they got some claps and now they can fuck off. 

For a moment you could see the white's of their eyes, the bovine fear.

[Butchers Blind]

But all those people clapped. Didn't clapping generate enough money for car parks?

[Zetetic]

Yes.

I feel fairly justified on this occasion since neither the article or the OP gave any hint of this.

[idunnosomename]

having never clapped for the NHS once, I feel partly responsible for this.

[Sebastian Cobb]

The English NHS.

The main problem is this doesn't go far enough - if you're going to introduce charges at hospital car parks on the basis that you're using a market-based approach to encourage efficient use of a scarce resource, you need to be far more responsive to changing to levels of demand. Charges should be greatly increased around shift-handover times, for example, ensuring that car parking spaces are obtained by those staff members who are most in need or best placed to use them, instead of the current socialised approach where even low-value/pay employees can sometimes park.

So it's the same in Wales then, it's easier for public to park than the staff?

[BlodwynPig]

So it's the same in Wales then, it's easier for public to park than the staff?

its free parking for everyone in Wales - like it used to be in England

[Sebastian Cobb]

its free parking for everyone in Wales - like it used to be in England

It's the same in Scotland but it means staff can't get parked, some places have staff parking but it's usually a fraction of the staff.

[Zetetic]

My experiences in England at Yeovil and Royal Devon and Exeter - the latter with both staff and patient perspectives, second-hand - were that charging was a completely inadequate response to managing demand, however - but both of those suffer from being quite close to their respective town centres.

So it's the same in Wales then, it's easier for public to park than the staff?

Depends.

I think it's mostly not because the hospitals are attracting non-hospital parkers, just because of where our 20-odd big hospitals are. (As far as I can judge - I'm always on public transport anyway.)

There's at least a couple that were (re)built in suburbs in the mid-20th-century and - despite often having reasonably good public transport links - just don't have the capacity. Sometimes the response to that means staff parking in a field, ten minutes uphill walk away, unfortunately.

[BlodwynPig]

It's the same in Scotland but it means staff can't get parked, some places have staff parking but it's usually a fraction of the staff.

New idea - cars to have parking spaces on their roofs

[thenoise]

Key workers are hero's they have no need of are money like those awful benefit scroungers. They risk their lives for the sake of our happiness alone.  If we start offering them a fair wage, or not symphoning off their wages back into the system by charging for parking, charging them for their exams, courses etc that are necessary for their jobs, or compulsory membership of a collegiate organisation in order that they are allowed to practice (for example), well, then they wouldn't be hero's then would they??

[Gurke and Hare]

£70 a day? That can't possibly be right, where's that from? The story linked in the OP doesn't mention it.

Assuming a 5 day working week, that would be £1400 per month. Nobody would work anywhere it cost that much to park, because they couldn't afford to.

[Fambo Number Mive]

I can't find the story where I thought £70 was quoted as the highest cost. Its very possible I misread it. I withdraw that figure. Apologies.

[Gurke and Hare]

Yeah - for the avoidance of doubt, I think it's a shit thing to do even if it's less than £70 a day.

[Fambo Number Mive]

This article claims up to £77 per day at the most expensive hospital to park at.Seems to assume staff would pay the same rates as visitors though: https://www.biggleswadetoday.co.uk/health/nhs-staff-england-may-soon-have-pay-ps77-day-park-hospitals-again-2907688

Data from August 2019, reveals the most expensive daily parking rates for A&E at hospitals in England are as follows:

Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, London — £77Whittington Health NHS Trust, London — £72Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London — £52.80Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London – £40King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London — £29St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London — £25Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust, Sussex — £20Luton and Dunstable University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust...

[Sebastian Cobb]

It's calculated from an hourly rate. I doubt anyone actually pays that. Apart from consultants, maybe.

[Zetetic]

I'd be surprised if many staff drive to Guy's, for that matter.