On Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:57:50 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article ,
Mark wrote:
You obviously haven't. Why should the taxpayer subsidise parking at
hospitals for all and sundry as you suggest in the first part of your
post? I'd rather such funds were spent on treating patients.

FFS. I am not proposing any such thing as you would know if you had
read my post properly.

The tome of your post suggests you were.

What tome?

Car park charges are a fairly recent
innovation and I doubt that the fees actually get back to improving
patient care.

So suggest a better scheme.

Several people have -- pay on exit.

I'll bet is all gets swallowed up by the army of
bureaucrats that administer the scheme.

Perhaps such administration should be done by volunteers?

ROTFL! It's almost impossible to get volunteers for far more
rewarding work that this nowadays. Everyone wants paying nowdays.

Nowhere was I proposing providing "unlimited free parking". A bit of
common sense should prevail. Providing free parking for emergencies
would be sensible and there are many ways to achieve this.

You'd be amazed what some people consider is an emergency.

Irrelevant. The hospital is quite capable of deciding what is an
emergency.

Great. I can just imagine the posts from you when they disagree with your
definition of an emergency. And which 'army of bureaucrats' is going to
decide what is and what isn't an emergency as regards charging for
parking?

It's very easy. You just present your casualty forms at the exit and
you don't need to pay. Otherwise you pay.

Others on this thread have suggested an alternative -- pay on exit.

Sounds like a way of having the carpark jammed with abandoned cars. And
also requires more sophisticated equipment than a simple ticket machine.

For "real" emergencies the parking can be free.

It is for ambulances. Which should be used for true emergencies.

It depends on the type of emergency. Our ambulance service is
severely underfunded and cannot even meet its own (lax) targets. I'd
rather go in a car, if possible, instead of waiting for an ambulance
that may take hours to turn up (or not at all).

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