NHS staff fighting coronavirus pandemic still forced to pay hospital parking charges

Staff fighting the coronavirus pandemic at several Birmingham hospitals are still having to pay hospital parking charges.

Staff working at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (QEHB), Heartlands hospital, Good Hope and Solihull hospitals are still paying a daily charge, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Les Young, an advance nurse practitioner who works in primary care, says that some staff are having to fork out between £100 and £150 a month just to have a place to park during work.

The Royal College of Nursing for England has called for the charges to be scrapped, adding that transmission of the potentially deadly virus is far more likely on public transport.

Hospital parking charges have been the subject of much controversy in recent years, with the government announcing late last year that charges were due to be scrapped as of April 2020.

However this has still not come into effect, meaning thousands of healthcare workers are having to shell out to park at their workplace.

Mike Adams, Director of the Royal College of Nursing for England, says that a scrapping of the charges would be 'a goodwill gesture' to all the hardworking healthcare staff from around the country.

Responding to enquiries regarding parking charges at their hospitals, a spokesperson for UHB said: "The Trust is currently looking at how it manages car parking fairly across all of our sites during the current situation."Staff are advised to check the internal communications for updates."