Nick Gibb MP joined Enid and Lionel Newman of Toddington Park, Littlehampton, to meet David Jones, the Director of Facilities and Estates at Worthing Hospital, to discuss Mr and Mrs Newman’s concerns about hospital car parking charges.
Mr and Mrs Newman had been to the hospital to undertake a series of treatments and ended up with a significant car park charge. The hospital refunded the charge but their concern is that such charges should not be levied on pensioners who are on fixed incomes and who tend to need to visit the hospital frequently and for prolonged periods.
As Mr Newman said: “You don’t know whether you’ll be here for 20 minutes or 20 hours.”
Nick Gibb commented: “Mr and Mrs Newman raised their concern with me about the car parking charges the hospital levies on patients undergoing treatment. We took the issue to the hospital who have informed us that they are reviewing the car parking charges as part of their “Green Travel Review”, which will look at how staff and patients travel to and from the hospital.
“It is important that the hospital doesn’t use cash-strapped pensioners or people on low incomes as cash cows. Worthing Hospital needs to be cautious about their parking charges – the principle that the NHS is free at the point of use must not be bypassed via the parking lot.”
PHOTO: From left: David Jones; Nick Gibb; Mrs Newman; Mr Newman at Worthing Hospital.