Plea over free parking at hospitals

Medical card patients should be granted free hospital parking, it was claimed today.

The Irish Patients Association (IPA) said it was not fair to ask people with limited resources to pay up to €2.20 per hour while they waited for hospital appointments or visited relatives.

“It’s part of the economics, people with medical cards should get free parking,” said chairman Stephen McMahon.

He said the new Health Services Executive should introduce a uniform policy on parking for all hospitals.

“I think it’s an issue that a lot of people can identify with. At the moment, it’s a bit of a lottery,” he said.

In recent years, hospitals ranging from Cork University Hospital to St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin have introduced pay parking for patients and visitors and many have constructed new multi-story car parks.

The IPA’s survey of nine hospitals around the country has found that some hospitals charge €2.20, an hour, while others such as the James Connolly Memorial Hospital in Blanchardstown provide free parking.

Mr McMahon said it was wrong that patients should have to pay extra parking charges because of delayed hospital appointments.

“You park your car in the hospital at nine in the morning but you mightn’t get seen until one o’clock. Why should patients be penalised for that?”

Mr McMahon said the parking charges were affecting the time people visiting sick relatives in hospitals.

“I heard someone saying recently they they’d stay for another minute or two to get the maximum value from the parking. Somebody else was saying, ‘I’m going to have to leave you now, because I don’t want to have to pay another hour’s rate for five minutes’.”