Kramer Welcomes Staff Challenge To Kingston Hospital Car Parking Charges

10.08.00am GMT Sun 26th Oct 2008

• SUSAN Kramer, MP for Richmond Park, has welcomed the campaign by staff for lower car parking charges at Kingston Hospital.

Susan Kramer said: "I have long supported patients, visitors and staff in protesting the high parking charges at Kingston Hospital. For many of my constituents the car is the necessary way to get to the hospital because bus services like the 371 do not stop at the hospital and require a substantial uphill walk. We are campaigning to persuade Transport for London to change this but the process is slow. To make matters worse, the parking machines at Kingston Hospital require a patient to guess how long they will be and it is easy to incur a penalty which has certainly happened to me when I have taken a grandchild to A&E. This costly parking, well above normal rates for Kingston, often hits people when they are already distressed and just reduces their confidence in the hospital generally. It needs to be changed."

• AGE Concern Kingston upon Thames write: ' . . a client who contacted Age Concern's First Contact advice line, which is available to older residents and their families and friends in Kingston and Richmond regarding a parking ticket issued by Mediclean who run Kingston Hospital's car parks. The caller told us that he had purchased a ticket for 3.5 hours, but his appointment had overrun. When he returned to his car he had a parking ticket for £40. By the time he contacted us he had written twice to Mediclean and received no reply.

We contacted PALS at Kingston Hospital who advised us that if an appointment over runs, patients can speak to hospital staff who will contact the car park attendants and no ticket will be issued. We asked how a patient would know about this. We were advised by Kingston Hospital that this procedure was not advertised "as it resulted in a great deal of abuse of the system"! In the light of this information we asked Kingston Hospital to arrange for the parking ticket to be cancelled, which they duly did. Patients using Kingston Hospital car parks should be made aware of this policy to prevent them unnecessary distress and from being issued with large parking fines.'