Half of all NHS trusts have reintroduced car parking charges for staff.
Health and social care workers are calling for controversial hospital parking charges to be scrapped after they were reintroduced by many NHS trusts earlier this year.
In March, the Government ordered NHS Trusts to scrap the charges for frontline healthcare workers for the duration of the pandemic but many NHS trusts have since reintroduced the charges.
However, NHS England’s NHS People Plan calls for parking to remain free. It states; “NHS organisations should continue to give their people free car parking at their place of work for the duration of the pandemic.”
A survey undertaken by NursingNotes reveals that over half (58%) of all NHS trusts reintroduced parking charges for staff between June and August 2020 despite this recommendation from NHS England.
The same survey also reveals that some nurses are paying upwards of £50 per month to work on the frontline.
Unfair.
Healthcare workers in Scotland and Wales do not pay hospital parking charges and Nothern Ireland suspended charges earlier this week.
One care support worker from London told NursingNotes; “We want to care for our patients but it is unfair that we are charged for that privilege.”
They went on to say; “Car parking charges for staff should be scrapped indefinitely.
Anthony Johnson, a health visitor and lead organiser for the grassroots group Nurses United UK, said; “We all know how stupid the current policy is – underpaid NHS workers are being forced to subsidise hospital budgets. This was never acceptable and, in a pandemic when so many nurses are thinking of leaving the profession, it is a recipe for disaster.
“We demand a properly funded NHS that doesn’t rely on car parking charges to make ends meet.”
Healthcare unions have also consistently backed calls to scrap the controversial charges.