ETA: Free parking is folly
Tuesday, 04 Mar 2008 10:53
Free parking at NHS hospitals in Wales has been described as folly by the Environmental Transport Association (ETA).
The association said hospital car parking charges were a "tax on the sick" but said other measures should be put in place rather than simply abolishing them.
Its comments follow the announcement from the Welsh assembly government that patients and healthcare workers will not have to pay to park at NHS hospitals in Wales from April 2008.
ETA director Andrew Davis said: "Exorbitant NHS parking charges are a tax on the sick, but free parking will lead to such overcrowding that the sick will no longer be able to get to hospital in the first place.
"Free parking is the latest example of the mismanagement of car parks by the NHS - clearly we need to see better public transport links to hospitals, but we also need to ask whether staff deserve parking spaces more than patients."