News of more car park charge increases at Ninewells Hospital have been branded as “absolutely disgusting”.
Vinci Park, which holds a long-term contract to manage the hospital’s car parks, is raising its daily and short stay charge by 10p to £1.90 while the weekly pass will go up from £9 to £9.50.
Monthly permits also go up, from £27.70 to £29.70, and the annual charge up by £24 to £356.40.
In a brief statement Vinci Park confirmed the price changes would come into force on November 1 less than a year since the last increases (link) and said the move was due to inflation.
However, this explanation has failed to satisfy car park users.
One member of staff, who did not want to be named, branded the decision ”absolutely disgusting,” adding: ”The charges just keep going up. I think you will see a lot more people parking on Ninewells Avenue and surrounding streets because people will refuse to pay.”
Local councillor Richard McCready, who has been an outspoken critic of the charges, said he had difficulty understanding why Vinci Park had chosen to hike its prices again.
”The increase to the staff parking charges are really quite bad as I suspect many of these workers will be without a pay rise, given the current economic climate,” he said.
”I am also concerned that visitors and people who are going to hospital for appointments will have to pay more money to park.
”I know that Vinci Park have a long-term contract at Ninewells but I would like to see the Scottish Government investigate the possibility of making all Scottish hospitals free to park in.
”I know they will say it was during the Labour Government that fees were in place but I don’t think enough investigation has been carried out. I think that would be good for Dundee and Scotland.”
The majority of people who use the hospital are senior citizens and therefore likely to face the brunt of the increase. That is according to the chairman of the Dundee Pensioners Forum and a committee member of the Celebrate Age Network (CAN) Jim McAulay.
He said: ”I know the NHS say it is too expensive to buy out these contracts but something needs to be done. It is just another increase that older people have to face and you wonder where is it going to end.”
The hospital which last saw parking charges go up in December (link) is almost halfway into its controversial 30-year contract that lets the car park operators charge motorists for parking in exchange for managing and maintaining the facilities.
This arrangement also prevented Ninewells from joining other hospitals in Scotland in removing charges.
The Scottish Government banned charging at Scotland’s hospitals at the end of December 2008, with the exception of a handful of hospitals, including Ninewells, which were tied in to lengthy private finance deals.
There had been pressure on Scottish Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon to negotiate a buyout of the contracts in the major city hospitals but she said it would cost millions of pounds to do so.