South Australian hospital parking fees are now costing some families more than their weekly rent

FAMILIES of sick South Australian patients are paying thousands of dollars a year in hospital parking fees, leaving some unable to afford to visit ill and dying relatives.

FAMILIES of sick South Australian patients are paying thousands of dollars a year in hospital parking fees, leaving some unable to afford to visit ill and dying relatives.

The fees, which can be charged more than once per day if families make more than a single visit to the hospital, are striking at the heart of Australia’s promise of a free public hospital system.

Some families have reported they are spending more on parking than they are on rent if they have a sick relative they need to visit every day.

More than $2 million has been raised from parking fees at the Lyell McEwin and Modbury hospitals alone.

A further $201,000 was raised from parking fines issued to people caught parking in patient permit areas at these hospitals.

A Sunday Mail investigation has found the Royal Adelaide Hospital has the highest parking charges of any public hospital in the state with a maximum rate of $27 a day.

The Women’s and Children’s Hospital charges $16 for five hours or more of parking, while the Flinders Medical Centre charges up to $13 a day.

The open-air car parks at some hospitals in Adelaide are free for the first two hours with a maximum rate of $13 a day.

The fees can cost families hundreds of dollars a week and thousands of dollars a year during the course of a lengthy chronic illness.

EXTRA BURDEN: Lisa Miller with daughter Holly. Ms Miller says there should be a parking-fee safety net for families. Picture: Tricia Watkinson

The Sunday Mail has learnt of people missing being able to visit a dying loved one, or had to leave a child alone in hospital because they could not afford parking.

Consumers Health Forum chief executive Leanne Wells said exorbitant parking fees must be addressed, are “distressing” and an extra stress on families trying to care for sick loved ones.

“For hospital patients and their relatives wanting to visit them, the challenge of finding and paying for parking can be distressing,” Ms Wells said.

“Concession card holders requiring outpatient care or visiting dear ones should not be expected to pay for parking.

“Hospitals should consider ways to make parking less expensive for people in these circumstances, such as a simple voucher system.”

An SA Health spokeswoman said it provided free parking to all patients and visitors for the first two hours in all its open-air car parks at metropolitan public hospitals.

The spokeswoman said the revised fee structure adopted in September 2010 “compares favourably to interstate hospital parking charges”.

“We have a number of car parking exemptions in place for patients and families who regularly visit South Australian hospitals,” the spokeswoman said.

Rebecca Kent, of Adelaide, said her husband had been sick for two years and that parking fees were crippling her family.

“If my husband is admitted to the Royal Adelaide Hospital for a week ... I pay more for my parking then I pay on my rent,” she wrote on a hospital parking Change.org petition.

“We have used all our savings and now live off the pension. I have in the past been faced with the decision to pay for parking or buy myself dinner that night.”

PATIENT STORIES OF BILL SHOCK

SINGLE mother Lisa Miller is a regular visitor to the Royal Adelaide Hospital with her 15-year-old daughter Holly.

Holly is profoundly deaf and has visual problems — and has sustained two serious injuries in the past two years.

Ms Miller, of Mt Barker, said parking spaces were difficult to find at the RAH and fees were too high.

“(Holly) has had two accidents in the last two years, broken her ankle and dislocated her knee,” Ms Miller said. “It takes $15 in petrol to get there and in peak hour it’s an hour in the car. Eight times out of 10 the car park is full and you’ve got to drive around the block a few times to find metered parking.”

And because medical appointments rarely start on time and run over, Ms Miller said she generally had to buy four hours’ parking on the meter to be sure she would not incur a fine.

Then she faced a 10-15 minute walk to the hospital.

If appointments run on time, she has paid for more parking than she needs.

“Someone else then pulls into my spot and the council gets paid twice. The council is making a packet out of this,” she says. If there is no one free to come to the hospital with her, Ms Miller said she had to leave her daughter standing alone at the hospital entrance while she found a park.

“When she broke her ankle I had to leave her alone in the ED three times while I went to find a park,” she says.

Ms Miller, who is on a disability pension as a result of a car accident, said she could not risk a parking fine because she would not be able to afford it.

“I think it can be crippling for people with a really sick child who need to make multiple visits. It should be free,” she said.

“A safety net should definitely be considered.”

Lisa Miller with her daughter Holly, 15, who’ve also been affected by high hospital parking costs. Picture: Tricia Watkinson

Thirteen-year-old Gidon Goodman reckons his family has shelled out over $10,000 in parking fees while he received treatment for his rare illness.

He’s so outraged by the bills he has started a change.org petition to encourage health ministers to fix the problem.

Gidon suffers from a rare blood disorder and has been a hospital patient since the age of three months and requires infusion of medicine every two weeks to control his symptoms.

“Over that time the parking prices have been going up crazily,” he says.

It used to be $16 for two hours plus, now it’s $28 for 2.5 hours plus and I’m in hospital for two to three hours depending on the treatment,” he says.

“The parking prices went up again a month ago and that motivated me to set up a petition, I know it’s an issue, people can’t believe the fees,” he says.

“It’s something that needs to be tackled and I want to try and tackle it,” he says.

Gidon Goodman, who has started a petition protesting hospital parking fees. He is pictured at the Sydney Children's Hospital in Sydney. Picture: Tim Hunter.

Carli Skurnik who’s 23 month old son Jake has had four major surgeries since the day he was born says she paid over $300 a week in parking fees while her son was in hospital.

That $300 a week fee is the “ discount fee” at the car park near the Randwick Children’s Hospital which charges $9.20 an hour and $28 for two hours or more.

Ms Skurnik describes the charges as “highway robbery”.

Jake was born with a hole in his heart and has had three open heart surgeries.

“He’s had cardiac arrests and died on me twice,” says Carli.

Carli says her son was so ill she wanted to be with him as soon as he woke at 6am in the morning and she left late at night so she had no choice but to pay the $300 charge at the hospital car park.

“As a child in hospital everything was free except the parking,” she said.

Some parents driving in from places like Orange spend hours looking for parking on the street to cut costs, she says.

“These mums are so stressed, every two hours they have to leave their children and run out and find a new parking spot and have to ask other parents to look after their children in ICU,” she says.

Carli Skurnik and her two year old son Jake. He had numerous heart operations. Picture: Cameron Richardson

Neil Johnston told the Change.org petition hospital parking cost him $28 a day.

“I had to quickly make the decision on whether I saw my sick and dying newborn son that day or eat that night. Due to my wife being off work and only one wage coming in.”

Robyn Hoogenvest from NSW says her husband has blood cancer and is about to be admitted for the third time for a period of 3 weeks or more to Westmead hospital.

“Parking is $17 per day and I will be paying over $100 per week. My husband is unable to work and we are living off my part time job. The parking is unaffordable.”

Sam Ferrara, from the NSW South Coast told Change.org her daughter requires regular treatment at Sydney Children’s Hospital for a chronic condition.

“We travel from Far South Coast NSW for her treatment and find the cost of parking crippling. We often have to attend several appointments in a single day, taking many hours.”

Clare Dixon told the petition she was a mother of a child with a chronic disease who visits the hospital regularly, the parking is exorbitant. “It will have cost us over $1000 so far this year.- and that’s using the “discount”. It’s just not fair.”

Ninety year-old age pensioner Shirley Clymer from Victoria had to walk one kilometre using her walking frame to get to the Dandenong Hospital when her husband Bob was dying of Alzheimer’s disease because she couldn’t afford the parking fees.

“I’m living in an aged care facility, I’m 90, paying daily care rates and running a car and paying for private health insurance, I have no money for parking fees,” she says.

Bob has since passed away but Mrs Clymer now has breast cancer and also has a sick daughter and faces a new round of parking fees to get her own treatment.

“When people are dying they need their dear ones sitting by them day and night and the parking fees are dreadful when they are already under enormous stress,” she says.

“I think the government should provide the parking for free,” she says.

Victorian Jill Edwards told the Change.org petition she her daughter was in hospital for 18 months continually, often in ICU and critically ill before she passed away.

“We paid up to $30 daily to park in a hospital car park as no other parking available. We were often not able to work and were financially crippled by the costs. It is above appalling and incomprehensible,” she says.

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.