Hospital parking fees taxing the sick under review
HEALTH ministers and parking operators have been goaded into action on hospital parking fees, thanks to a 13-year-old boy.
Companies
Don't miss out on the headlines from Companies. Followed categories will be added to My News.
ACTION to ease the $100 million a year Aussie families are paying on hospital parking fees is on the way with the peak body representing the nation’s parking companies convening meetings in every state to thrash out a solution.
The move comes in response to News Corp’s hospital parking campaign sparked by 13 year old Gidon Goodman’s Change.org petition on the issue that has received over 66,000 responses.
Starting next week Parking Australia will hold meetings in every state to talk to the Cancer Council, the Chronic Illness Alliance, hospitals, parking operators and other stakeholders to come up with ways to ease hospital parking pain.
Parking Australia CEO Lorraine Duffy says it’s usually hospitals that set the parking fees and the money raised helps fund health services.
She wants to develop a code of practice for hospital parking that will see any parking concessions clearly communicated, provide patients with information on how to apply for parking concessions and where they can complain.
If their medical appointments run over time they will be able to make a case to have a parking fine waived under the code, she says.
News Corp is calling for a national hospital parking safety net that would limit parking fees to $10 a day and $30 a week and pensioners should be able to park for free.
Cancer Council Victoria CEO Todd Harper says parking at Victorian cancer treatment centres is consistently identified as a significant issue for cancer patients, their families and carers.
“Cancer Council Victoria would like to see concessions provided to reduce the burden on vulnerable patients, in particular those who frequently attend hospital,” he said.
“We would like to see a co-ordinated approach by parking providers and better quality information for patients and their families ahead of their first visit, particularly about where they can access affordable parking, where there are drop-off zones and waiting periods for car parking. Addressing parking problems will benefit patients, their families and medical professionals responsible for delivering patient care.”
Gidon Goodman started his petition after calculating his parents had spent over $10,000 on hospital parking fees while he had treatment for a rare chronic illness.
In response 90-year-old Shirley Clymer revealed she had to walk more than one kilometre using a walking frame to visit her dying husband because she couldn’t afford hospital parking fees.
Neil Johnston, the father of a premature baby said he was unable to visit her as often as he would have liked because he couldn’t afford to pay for parking.
NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner met with Mr Goodman this week to discuss his campaign.
“After a very productive meeting, I undertook to review aspects of the state’s hospital car parking policy,” Ms Skinner said.
She will look at how to ensure greater consistency in parking concessions, ensure better communication of them and consider extending concessions for people with chronic illnesses which require them to visit hospital on a regular basis.
She has pledged to meet Mr Goodman again in December to report on progress.
Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association Policy Coordinator Paul Versteege says his members are “appalled” at hospital parking fees and can’t afford them.
“We wonder why, for an essential facility you have to pay to park at all,” he said.
“We know hospitals are setting the fees and that goes to how the hospitals are funded if they have to resort to levy parking fees to make ends meet,” he said.
“Public hospitals should be publicly funded for all their functions,” he said.
If there are concessions available for parking they are not advertised and the people eligible do not know how to obtain them, he said.
Parents lobby group The Parenthood says hospital parking fees of up to $30 a day at children’s hospitals are crippling parents.
“We want to see some discounts,” says The Parenthood’s Elly Desmarchelier.
News Corp has revealed the sickest patients and their families are paying over $100 million a year in hospital parking.
Revenue raised from hospital parking fees in NSW has soared by 37 per cent to $38.7 million in the last three years, twelve times the rate of inflation over the same period.
In Melbourne where hospital parking revenue is $66 million a year the state government has asked hospitals to review the fees and put in place concessional arrangements but they are still inadequate.
NEWS CORP HOSPITAL PARKING CAMPAIGN
What patients and their families need:
* National safety net that limits how much patients and their families spend on public hospital parking fees every year.
* The government has a safety net for prescriptions and medical fees. It should establish a similar safety net for parking, limiting expenses to free for aged pensioners and $10 a day and $30 a week for frequent users.
GIDON GOODMAN WRITES ABOUT HIS MOTIVATION
“TO be honest, I wasn’t sure anyone would listen to me. I’m 13 and don’t have any experience in these areas so it’s hard to be taken seriously. I never expected to be personally invited to meet with NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner but that’s exactly what happened.
I’ve been going to Sydney Children’s Hospital every fortnight since I was three. I have Gaucher’s disease, a rare blood disorder. My family’s spent $10,000 in hospital parking fees in that ten years. That’s a lot. It’s heartbreaking to think that families worse off than mine are paying just as much if not more.
In one of these visits I opened a laptop from my hospital bed and started a petition on Change.org. I asked for a review of massively expensive hospital parking fees, and shared my story.
I saw some signatures rolling in on my petition, which got me excited. When the Sunday Telegraph ran a campaign on hospital parking fees, and included me in their story, my petition really took off. Thousands of NSW patients signed and told of painful decisions between debt and health. Visitors to the sick, who in my opinion are the very best people in society, admitted parking prices deterred them from frequent visits.
We’ve done a lot of online actions to get Jillian Skinner listening, I even surveyed my supporters to present data to the NSW government on how badly the current parking prices impact sick and dying patients at their time of need.
For the meeting I printed out all 66,000 signatures and took the box, heavy with the voices of thousands to Mrs Skinner. The meeting was a huge step forward. Mrs Skinner agreed to an internal review of the fees in which I’d be included. She’s committed to make parking concessions more known about, as some patients don’t know they qualify. But more important, she’s keen to make them more widely available, not just for weekly hospital visitors but fortnightly visitors like me. Ditching the means testing was also talked about, which I’ll continue to push for.
I got the Health Minister to listen, and respond, but time will tell if she acts. I have another meeting with her locked in for December, to go through results of her team’s review. Until then, I’ll be asking my 66,000 signers on my Change.org petition to keep the pressure on!
Gidon Goodman’s Change.org petition is still open and can be signed at Change.org/hospitalparking
Originally published as Hospital parking fees taxing the sick under review
Bain Capital refuses to give up on Virgin Australia float
Virgin Australia’s owner is pushing ahead with its plan to relist the airline on the ASX, even as the sharemarket endures a bloodbath.
Star to sign $300m lifeline
Star Entertainment group will avoid collapse with a $300m deal reportedly set to be signed shortly.