| Topic: | Re:Re:West Middx Hospital's charges were 7th highest in UK! | |
| Posted by: | Tom Beaton | |
| Date/Time: | 24/07/06 18:34:00 |
| The House of Commons Health Committee published a report last week (18 July) called NHS Charges. There is a BBC report at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5187740.stm and the full report of the Committee is at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmselect/cmhealth/815/815-i.pdf A lot of it, naturally, is about prescription, dental and optical charges but in the section on non-clinical charges they are generally very critical of the way hospital authorities charge for car parking. The BBC report includes the following quotations from various people, starting with the chair of the committee. Kevin Barron, chair of the committee and Labour MP, said: "The system of NHS charges needs to change, but first we need to know how the charges interact with health. In the short term, parking fees should be reduced - or eliminated altogether - for patients attending hospital regularly. It is unacceptable that people have to pay hundreds of pounds to attend for necessary treatment." Peter Cardy, chief executive of Macmillan Cancer Support, welcomed the parking cost cuts proposals. "Cancer treatment involves a lot of expensive machinery - a hospital parking meter should not be one of them." John Appleby of independent think-tank the King's Fund, said: "It is not the role of the health service to raise money through charges and co-payments. This should be done through general taxation through which the vast majority of healthcare is funded." Michael Summers, from the Patients Association, said there were many people with small incomes who were put off using the NHS by charges. "It is basically wrong to make money out of patients and their families." The BBC report quotes a Department of Health spokeswoman saying, "Trusts should not fleece patients unfairly". This is a strange use of language. It suggests there is a way to fleece people fairly! Clearly the government does not like the health committee making criticisms but at least there is now an official published report that can be referred to by anyone wanting to criticise the car-park charging system of the West Mid. |