Hospital parking charges warning
Cambs 24
Parking charges at Doddington and Ely hospitals are inevitable to bring them into line with the North Cambs Hospital at Wisbech.
"The status quo is not tenable," said Sharon Fox, director of corporate affairs for East Cambs and Fenland PCT.
"Current arrangements have not been developed in a coherent and consistent way and lack any explicit set of underpinning principles.
"Significant funding is having to be diverted from frontline services to finance a £250,000 expansion and refurbishment scheme for the car park at the Princess of Wales Hospital, Ely. That is just one of the reasons why the Primary Care Trust was considering car park charges, said Ms Fox. The PCT says it needs to spend the money on the Ely car park soon, and this is in addition to £95,000 spent refurbishing car parks across the trust last year.
A draft parking policy has been developed and its recommendations will go to the new Cambridgeshire PCT being set up.
On Monday, a four-week consultation exercise began, inviting comments from staff and patients and the public to the trust's three main hospital sites, at Ely, Doddington and Wisbech - the only hospital which so far charges to park.
Ms Fox said the policy was being developed "to recognise and try to deal with the tension between the need to ensure staff can get to their workplace and park with ease, while enabling patients and their visitors, many of whom are elderly and disabled, to have reasonable access to our hospitals".
The draft policy was the PCT's first attempt to "face up and address these challenges in the context of limited car parking spaces on our sites.
"There is no perfect solution - these proposals represent what we think is a fair compromise for staff, patients and visitors."
Parking charges at Doddington and Ely hospitals are inevitable to bring them into line with the North Cambs Hospital at Wisbech.
"The status quo is not tenable," said Sharon Fox, director of corporate affairs for East Cambs and Fenland PCT.
"Current arrangements have not been developed in a coherent and consistent way and lack any explicit set of underpinning principles.
"Significant funding is having to be diverted from frontline services to finance a £250,000 expansion and refurbishment scheme for the car park at the Princess of Wales Hospital, Ely. That is just one of the reasons why the Primary Care Trust was considering car park charges, said Ms Fox. The PCT says it needs to spend the money on the Ely car park soon, and this is in addition to £95,000 spent refurbishing car parks across the trust last year.
A draft parking policy has been developed and its recommendations will go to the new Cambridgeshire PCT being set up.
On Monday, a four-week consultation exercise began, inviting comments from staff and patients and the public to the trust's three main hospital sites, at Ely, Doddington and Wisbech - the only hospital which so far charges to park.
Ms Fox said the policy was being developed "to recognise and try to deal with the tension between the need to ensure staff can get to their workplace and park with ease, while enabling patients and their visitors, many of whom are elderly and disabled, to have reasonable access to our hospitals".
The draft policy was the PCT's first attempt to "face up and address these challenges in the context of limited car parking spaces on our sites.
"There is no perfect solution - these proposals represent what we think is a fair compromise for staff, patients and visitors."
posted by Neil Herron at 4:43 AM
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