Godfrey's Gospel: Why isn't hospital parking free for everyone?

A COUPLE of years ago, I had reason to visit a hospital on the outskirts of Portimao, a small city on the Algarve in Portugal. A family relative was hospitalised, so this necessitated a daily visit during my time there.

Not once was I asked to pay a parking fee. This was not a backwater hospital; in fact, it was the main hospital for the region. I cannot comment on the level of care patients received, but I can say there was no suggestion of patients, their families or anyone else having to pay to park their cars.

There was no shortage of spaces – in fact, there was a security guard walking around the entire time, making sure no-one occupied two parking spaces when one would do or try to rob a car while people visited patients.

But can the same be said for this little country? No. In fact, figures released show that patients, their families and staff members were forced to pay a whopping €19 million in parking fees at Irish hospitals last year.

I know land is expensive and to provide adequate parking takes a lot of space which has to be paid for by someone, but surely with all the taxes we pay and the huge budget our health service has, the least they could do is provide adequate parking without putting a charge on it.

The new National Children’s Hospital is to have a little under 1,000 parking spaces, which sounds a lot, but anyone who knows where the hospital is located, in the middle of an already overcrowded part of the city, will agree that is totally inadequate – especially when you consider that 500 of those spaces are to be designated for staff use only.

Top of the list when it comes to revenue generated from parking fees at Irish hospitals is St Vincent’s University Hospital, which generated an income of €1.6 million.

The spending of that money is entirely at the discretion of the hospital and outside the remit of the HSE or Department of Health. For reasons I won’t go into now, I had reason to visit that fine establishment – and I mean that in the most sincere way – at least every 21 days from the tail end of 2016 until April 2023.

I still make frequent visits there. Parking was always an issue, even though there was an underground car park as well as surface parking around the grounds of the hospital. Then a new multi-storey car park was constructed.

There are limited wheelchair-only spaces, which come free of charge, so all those visits, which usually took an entire day, cost approximately €12. Not a lot, especially if you take city centre parking fees into consideration, but over time I estimate I spent over €2,000 on parking fees alone at that hospital.

While whatever medical procedures were being conducted are free, nothing else is. Sandwiches, snacks, tea or coffee are all charged at the commercial rate, so a day at the hospital for anyone runs to money – a lot, if you are as frequent a visitor as I was.

But it is not just the patients who pay. Nurses and midwives are among others who have to put their hands in their pockets to cover the cost of parking. I know there are bus routes stopping off at practically every hospital in the country, but the timetable does not always suit – and anyway, after a long and arduous shift, does anyone really want to share a bus with others, when all they want is a little peace and quiet to gather their thoughts and wind down from what may have been a very stressful day?

Some hospitals will argue that while the spending of this money is discretionary, in reality it is used to shore up other areas where there is a shortfall in funding.

That may be true, but irrespective of whatever good use this money is put to, am I wrong in thinking that €19 million, while an awful lot of money to you or I, is really only a drop in the ocean considering the size of the health budget? Remember, this year the total allocation stands at €25.8 billion, an increase of €2.94 billion on last year.

Previously, the Irish Cancer Society sought a waiver of parking fees for all patients undergoing treatment, but it appears to have fallen on deaf ears. I agree that these people, who are already going through hell, should not have to worry about incurring additional expense or putting added pressure on the family budget, but I would go further and say most people attending any public hospital in Ireland are already feeling the strain before they get to park their cars or buy a cup of tea.

Yes, there is pressure on the government to deliver everything bar the kitchen sink in any budget and, yes, the minister for health, past and present, has introduced a lot of new services free of charge, but surely this is a budgetary problem that could be easily solved.