Hospital car parking charges

Whoever would have thought that hospital car parking would have generated so much political heat?

Lee Waters' post on the Our Kingdon blog (http://ourkingdom.opendemocracy.net/2008/03/04/wisdom-of-welsh-parking-obscured-by-context-of-devolution/) tries to get us back on track and remind us that there needs to be a debate about how free car parking at hospital sites contributes to carbon reduction targets, which of course it doesn't. But, as I have thought about this over the day, I think it is an important issue of social justice.

First, there are surely places where charges should be levied long before hospitals. The gigantic car parks at retail parks and supermarkets all provide free parking, as do many public buildings. Our concern about carbon emissions caused by hospital car parking is a little misplaced with so many other offenders. Second, people have little choice about whether or not to visit a hospital - they need to go for treatment or to visit relatives - unlike popping over to B&Q on a Sunday afternoon. And third, and critically, public transport to many hospitals is rubbish - it can take 2 or 3 buses which don't connect to get from Bedlinog to Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr for example - and if you are going for treatment, even as an outpatient, chances are you won't feel like a 2 hour bus journey.

So, unless and until there is no free parking in most other places, free hospital car parking has to stay.