Car parking take tops €1.4m at one hospital

PATIENTS and their families are being forced to pay almost €1.4 million in car park fees every year — the equivalent of €3,800 a day — at one of the country’s largest regional hospitals.

Senior HSE officials have confirmed that despite the public’s stricken financial circumstances, rates at Waterford Regional Hospital remain one of the most expensive in Ireland.

Over the past two years the major south-eastern regional facility has taken in almost €2.8 million in car park fees.

This includes €1.38m in 2009 and €1.39m last year — the equivalent of €3,797 and €3,832 every day for each of the periods.

Richie Dooley, HSE operational manager for Waterford and Wexford, said the money was part of “an annual income target” set by the hospital which focussed on extra costs such as car park fees, private rooms and other hidden charges.

While this money is used to pay for services at the hospital, he said protocols are in place to allow the fees to be waived for anyone attending the facility to visit a terminally ill patient.

“Anyone like this should make their circumstances aware to the security staff as a first port of call,” Mr Dooley explained.

The figures were released at the HSE South regional health forum and are among the highest car park fees of any hospital in Ireland.

The near €1.4m annual total charge at Waterford Regional Hospital is on a par with the €2.8m dual cost for the same service at Cork University Hospital (CUH) and Cork University Maternity Hospital (CUMH) in 2009 — which itself has risen from a comparatively low €2m in 2007, the height of the Celtic Tiger.

University College Hospital in Galway had a parking income of €926,513 in 2009, with a €584,568 surplus after staff and other costs were accounted for.

Kerry General Hospital saw costs rise to €858,392 — leaving a €730,000 surplus after costs — during the same period, while revenue solely from car park fees at the busy Beaumont Hospital in Dublin was in excess of €3m between January 2007 and the end of last year.

At St Luke’s General Hospital in Kilkenny, a massive €976,303 was taken off patients and visitors between January 2009 and December 2010.

The discrepancy in costs is because the HSE allows hospitals to set their own charges.

The lowest average rate last year was at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, where car park fees were capped at €3 per vehicle regardless of the length of a person’s stay.

At Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown, Dublin, the rate was €10 per vehicle, with the figure rising to €20 at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Dooradoyle, Limerick.

St James’s Hospital in Dublin charges €2.40 an hour with a daily cap of €13.20. However, the facility is located in an area where the hourly cost of street parking is just €1.

The Irish Patients’ Association, which has repeatedly highlighted the issue of parking charges, said the car park costs effectively amount to a “stealth tax” on patients and their families who are already under significant strain.