Call for Birmingham hospitals to standardise parking charges
HEALTH watchdogs are calling on Birmingham hospitals to make parking charges the same after hearing about wild discrepancies in price.
City health scrutiny members said they felt it was unfair that charges veered wildly from one hospital to the other.
They are writing to hospital bosses urging them to standardise prices.
The move is also aimed at reducing numbers of patients, visitors and staff clogging up residential roads.
Charges dramatically differ with Edgbaston’s Queen Elizabeth (QE) and Selly Oak hospitals the most expensive at £11.20 for eight hours, against £5 for the same time at Heartlands and Good Hope.
Coun Deirdre Alden, health scrutiny chairwoman, said Edgbaston’s issue was exacerbated by three hospitals – the QE, Women’s and QE psychiatric hospitals – all at one site.
“Part of the problem is the cost of parking,” said Coun Alden.
“It’s expensive and that’s why people park on the road.”
Reports showed residents in Harborne and Edgbaston had made complaints via Roman Way Residents’ Group over “inconsiderate parking by people visiting or working at the QE hospital”. While members said congestion problems in local streets around Heartlands saw no sign of ending as hospital bosses had shelved plans to build two new car parks for staff in August.
Scrutiny member Coun Ansar Ali Khan said: “Parking around Heartlands is a serious problem as the hospital has limited spaces.
“The charges at different hospitals aren’t the same and there is no consistency between them.”
Heart of England Foundation Trust, which runs Heartlands, Good Hope and Solihull hospitals with 1067 spaces, made £2.4m from visitors in 2007/08.
Sandwell and West Birmingham Trust, running City Hospital, in Winson Green; Sandwell Hospital, in West Bromwich and Rowley Regis Hospital, raked in a total of £1.34m on parking.
University Hospital Birmingham Trust, which runs the QE and Selly Oak hospitals and has 812 spaces, did not disclose how much it made over that time.
But the scrutiny committee was told that parking fees helped finance the new £545 million ‘superhospital’.
Hospital executives have defended charges saying they are necessary to pay for parking security along with preventing drivers from using hospitals as cheaper alternatives to parking in nearby town centres.
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