Health being put at risk by hospital parking

18/03/2008

The shocking results of a survey carried out by the national disabled motorists` charity Mobilise has shown that the health of disabled people is being put at risk by a lack of appropriate parking at healthcare facilities.

The survey of nearly 2500 disabled people showed that 60% are finding parking at hospital difficult - with 3% saying they just gave up and went home. Others say it took so long to find a space they missed their appointment and those who could park said they had to arrive hours earlier than necessary just to park.

In many hospitals parking is only free to Blue Badge holders who manage to find an accessible bay, but those who have to park in a standard space often have to pay. This poses huge problems for people with upper limb disabilities who cannot handle coins. The survey also revealed that where disabled people have to pay and claim back the money many don’t - because they cannot walk the distance to the claims office.

Although NHS hospitals in Wales will be scrapping hospital parking charges by 2011 there are no plans to stop charging in Scotland and England. The survey shows that people are having to pay up to £6 an hour and some disabled people are now finding the costs so expensive they are requesting patient transport instead.

16 % of disabled people said they could use public transport to get to hospital but many said it would be very difficult due to the nature of their disability and the distance that had to walk between bus stops.

The parking provisions at dentists’ surgeries were also dire with only 16% of dentists providing any disabled parking. Part III of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) which requires every business to become more user-friendly to disabled people has clearly failed to make any significant difference to parking provision at dentists surgeries.

Mobilise Director of Policy and Campaigns Helen Smith said: "The results of this survey are extremely worrying. When disabled people are missing out on treatment and checkups because of a failure to park then clearly their needs are not being met.

“We hope that local authorities will take action to make sure nobody is missing out on healthcare due to an inability to park."

What are YOUR experiences of parking at hospitals? Email: editorial@maturetimes.co.uk