If you're good you get carped on!

[phil d]

On the local news this morning they were talking about Hospitals charging for parking and it said that at 2 of the biggest hospitals in Liverpool it costs over £800 a year for a staff parking permit! This is ridiculous, they know you can't park elsewhere, and on some shifts it's not possible to get home any other way, the expression "shooting fish in a barrel" springs to mind.

If all the staff refused to come in until this stupid charge was abolished, it would end after a day, trouble is it's a caring profession and the people who make these rules know that the staff wouldn't walk out en masse, so they get away with it. One nurse was telling me that she pays several hundred pounds a year for a permit and even then isn't guaranteed a parking space, another has had so many problems that her father drives her to and from work. It's absolutely ridiculous that this is happening, same with charging for parking, lets be honest if you get the call saying a loved one is in hospital seriously ill, paying for a parking space is the last thing on your mind.

They need to think a bit more too, our local hospital, has a large ward, a doctors surgery and numerous clinics, there's lot's of staff and visitors yet there's only parking for about a hundred cars, the staff are told not to use the spaces but to park on the grassy bit at the back, visiting consultants however are allowed to park in the disabled bays!

 

[UNG]

Hospital parking charges are ridiculous I worked on a hospital in London about 15 years ago went to do an initial survey prior to doing the job and I knew it was going to be expensive when I noticed the payment machine took cards had to factor in about £40 - £45 a day to park. The best one was that when the local football team was playing at home spectators were allowed to use the car park at a reduced rate

 

[Murdoch]

My misses is a midwife ... she has to pay a nominal sum to park at work,,,,,, and if you live close to the hospital, you can't have a parking permit at all!

 

[binky]

this is what happens when you cut budgets and starve the NHS of money. It's also a fine example of why I would rather pay more tax than have to cough up money via the backdoor. There is an element of stopping too many cars parking due to lack of spaces as well - some hospitals have had problems with people parking for free to go to work or shopping.

Heard a figure on the radio today stating nurse pay has effectively dropped by 14% over the last 10 years.

 

[binky]

ooh look what just popped up on facebook...

https://tompride.wordpress.com/2017/04/23/theresa-mays-secret-plans-to-replace-nhs-england-with-private-us-healthcare-system-kaiser-permanente/

 

[UNG]

ooh look what just popped up on facebook...

https://tompride.wordpress.com/2017/04/23/theresa-mays-secret-plans-to-replace-nhs-england-with-private-us-healthcare-system-kaiser-permanente/

Oh it's on faceache it must be true!!!!!!!

 

[binky]

very interesting either way, albeit I'm not familiar with the source. It appears he his a left wing blogger, but the facts are ministers visiting a private Californina Health Care provider can't be denied, along with some trade deal I've forgotten the name of that would open up UK public sector to American business.

 

[Murdoch]

TTIP (i think)

 

[Lurch]

I knew it was going to be expensive when I noticed the payment machine took cards

TBF I've been doing some jobs in Wales and the machines take cards so I pay the £1.25 via card (even though the instructions are wrong/confusing and the contactless bit is useless).

 

[binky]

Dad was in hopital with a fractured hip, cost me about £2.40 every time I visited. It's just another source of income for the hospital.

 

[steptoe]

Dad was in hopital with a fractured hip, cost me about £2.40 every time I visited. It's just another source of income for the hospital.

I wouldn't mind tbh if the hospital actually got the money, but I'd doubt they do......

 

[Doc Hudson]

some hospitals have had problems with people parking for free to go to work or shopping.

This has been a problem in a few places I know, using hospital car parks for non-hospital business. Thus clogging up parking bays for those genuinely trying to park. However in this modern technological time, with all sorts of GPS tracking, Number plate recognition, Computerised barriers, CCTV etc. I fail to see why hospitals can't do the simple principal a lot of super markets in town centers have been doing for years. Pay for parking, but if you spend £10 in store you get 2hours free parking or something similar. Why can't some sort of ticket or token or number plate recognition be applied to a patient who is using the hospital and a reasonable number of visitors per patient to allow a proportionate amount of free parking? 

Doc H.       

 

[Blue Duck]

Hospital near to me charges £3.70/hr which works out quite expensive if you are there for 8 hours, then the staff have to buy permits which are subsidised by the hospital, still 1k/year. I think the hospital sold the car park to a private company.

Stealth taxes....daylight robbery....

When my first duckling was born we were at UCLH during the doctors strike in 2011, there is no parking at UCLH so I was using the underground car park next to Euston station which is just outside the CC zone, Still I was paying near £50^/ day and we were there for nearly 2 weeks due to complications and a lack of doctors!

:vomit

 

[Lurch]

Why can't some sort of ticket or token or number plate recognition be applied to a patient who is using the hospital and a reasonable number of visitors per patient to allow a proportionate amount of free parking?

Because that would mean less money for the people running the car park.

 

[phil d]

I worked at one of our local hospitals for a couple of weeks on security, anyway they had this bloke going round clamping cars that hadn't got a ticket or the ticket had expired. I asked how much they charged for unclamping a car, "nothing mate, we just unclamp and tell them not to do it again" , I couldn't believe it, they'd bought a few of these clamps and had a guy who's only job was to check tickets and clamp/unclamp cars, and then they didn't bother fining them!

The other thing that annoys me is this thing where the press only mention the nurses, my wife works in the admin section, she only got a 1% pay rise too, then with the increase in NI contributions they ended up with nothing. Trouble is people forget how many people it takes to run a hospital, now ours has no A&E dep't they have a ward for respite and the rest is special clinics. Now if you live in my area and your GP decides you need to see a specialist, it's odds on that it will be my wife who sorts it out for you. It works like this,

Doctor sends letter requesting referral to my wife, she contacts the department necessary and works out the best available date, some things have to be seen quicker than others. She then writes to patient offering them an appointment, assuming they accept and attend (many fail to turn up) they see the specialist, he decides on what further action is needed, this information is passed back to my wife, she does the necessary and informs the patient of the next appointment or whatever is decided the patient needs, nobody gets an appointment for any clinic without my wife dealing with it, Behind her there are several secretaries who type up the consultants notes etc.

Now these are only a few of the people working there, there's obviously many different people doing a great many jobs, all of which are equally important, think of it this way.

If my wife doesn't do her job, you won't get an appointment, which means the consultant won't have anyone to see, if the secretaries don't type up the notes, you won't get any further treatment, if the cleaner doesn't keep the place clean, then it will close, again you will not get any treatment. non of these people have had decent pay rises, if any over the last few years, yet people bang on about the nurses, a hospital is like a big machine, loads of little cogs, remove any one and the machine stops. some time back a patient had an issue, was referred on by the GP and as usual the paperwork landed on my wife's desk. The job was listed as non urgent, which has quite a long waiting time, reading the notes she was concerned about something and queried it with one of the consultants, the appointment was then graded urgent and the patient was seen within a couple of weeks, quite lucky as it turned out as they were actually very ill. Now if my wife hadn't questioned it then that patient could have waited months for the appointment, by which time things could have ended badly, does she get any credit? NO! the patient will tell everyone how wonderful the consultant was and how swiftly they were treated, they forget that without the actions of my wife things could have ended very differently. It needs mentioning that these people too need and deserve a pay rise, they are the forgotten ones in the NHS, or is it a sinister ploy? Make everyone focus on the nurses, same as they did with the junior doctors and make it look as though they're all a bunch of whingers? I bet that's the real agenda, nobody really knows how far these "hidden" workers go to make sure things happen when they should.

Many's the time I've gone to pick her up from work and ended up driving around the area to drop a letter off for a patient because there's an appointment become available the following day and she can't contact them, so we drive round, make contact and advise them of the appointment, she gets no money for this, she does it because like most of the other staff she cares about the patients. Recently I was at home and she rang me, an old lady who lived several miles away had arrived by ambulance, unfortunately there was no return trip booked, so they'd have to fit her in on the last one of the day, several hours later, to avoid this, my wife rang me and asked if I would be able to drop the lady at home, only too glad  to help. I drove her home, helped her to the door, then waited 'till she was inside before leaving, the old lady was very grateful and mentioned this on her next hospital visit.

Remember it takes more than just nurses to run a hospital, and nearly all the staff need and deserve a pay rise.   

 

[binky]

too true Phil D, without the dedication, professionalism and kindness of many staff and people like yourself the NHS would collapse.

 

[binky]

Secure well paid jobs :slap

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/video-theresa-may-struggles-to-answer-when-confronted-live-on-tv-about-nurses-going-to-foodbanks-a7710066.html