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Hospital car park fees rise
by Tom Rowley3/ 9/2008
VISITORS face a 325 per cent rise in fees if they park at Tameside Hospital for more than four hours.
Previously they could park all day for £1.60 but from Monday a sliding scale of charges has been introduced, with £1.60 paying for just one hour‘s parking.
A hospital worker — who does not wish to be named — has hit out at the increase, which he also says had been poorly publicised, with tiny notices placed around the Ashton hospital.
"People who need to attend A&E can easily be there for four hours or more," he said. "If patients are in hospital for a long time their relatives could be paying over £5 a day. If people over run their time their car could be clamped and it costs £20 to £30 to release the clamp."
Now it costs £2.10 to ‘pay and display’ at the hospital for between one and two hours; £2.60 from two and four hours and £5.20 for more than four hours.
A Tameside Hospital spokeswoman said the increase was the first since 2004.
"The increase is a consequence of the rising costs of providing the service and is necessary to ensure that the trust has sufficient funding to provide and manage on-site car parking facilities and vehicle security. Banded charges such as those being introduced brings the hospital into line with not only other NHS Trusts but most other organisations who charge for public car parking and are still among the lowest hospital car parking charges in the North West. The maximum charge for anyone staying up to four hours is £2.60, which corresponds with visiting patterns for most patients at the hospital. Visitors of long stay patients (four weeks and over) and parents of babies/children on the neo-natal unit and children’s Unit can obtain a concessionary rate weekly permit, currently costing £5 per week — visitors should contact the ward for the appropriate authorisation form."
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