To pay or not to pay

One of the advantages of having different laws around the country is that we can contrast and compare the results.

One of the disadvantages is that people often think differences are not fair – calling it a postcode lottery (a bit of a misnomer as laws tend to follow government boundaries not post office delivery routes and the policy decisions are not, I assume, made on a random basis).

With the plans for free car parking at hospitals we have a case in point. On the one hand the Scottish and Welsh governments plan to make parking at hospitals free whilst on the other hand England and Northern Ireland governments do not intend to follow suit.

On the face of it there is a certain logic in making parking free. This helps make sure that health is free at the point of use. Some consider parking charges to be a tax on the ill.

My local hospital is in the middle of town so it is just a short walk for me, but the general hospital was built in the middle of no-where. Although eventually a bus service was provided it is infrequent and consequently those who can go to the hospital by car do so. The result is that, despite there being many large car parks, they are often full. And that is even with a parking charge. If the car parks were free I daresay they would be full throughout the day.

In my view, travel to hospitals needs to be actively managed. Each mode, be it walking, cycling, bus, train, taxi or car needs to be considered by the hospital as part of a comprehensive plan. The type of traveller is important too – the needs of the staff, patients, suppliers and visitors are different. Some staff are peripatetic, others remain at the hospital all day. As a general rule, I would think that all-day parkers should park further away from the entrance than short-stay parkers. I visited a hospital recently where all the parking spaces closest to the entrance were reserved for the consultants – not the best of signals to send out to the public.

Active management need not be limited to car park time limits or charges. I saw one hospital deliberately advertise for staff along the best public transport routes to reduce the demand on the car-park.

Of course, all hospitals should have their own travel policy. It might be useful to have available on-line or in the foyer so that local people could judge the merits of the decisions made. However, it is the location of a hospital which is most important. Following the general rule of location that the more people visiting a site per hectare the closer it should be to the town centre, subject to wider considerations, as hospitals have many visitors they should be as close to the town centre as possible. In recent decades the health service has done the opposite and built hospitals in out of town sites – this policy should be reversed.

What are your views on hospital car park charging? Have you come across good practice? Have you arrived at a free car park only to find it full? Have you found cycle facilities poor or non-existent or have they improved?