Jeane Freeman confirms parking charges suspended at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary

PARKING charges at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and Scotland’s other PFI hospitals are to be scrapped for three months because of the coronavirus crisis.

Health Secretary Jeane Freeman confirmed the move as part of a statement in the Scottish Parliament updating MSPs on the latest situation on the virus.The fees – which can cost hospital staff up to £1500 a year – will be removed for three months from Monday.

The move followed protests that private consortium Consort was making profits from the dedication of vital workers fighting coronavirus.

There had been cross-party calls for the charges to be lifted, as well as pressure from trade unions and an online petition.

Ms Freeman said: “We cannot have barriers to staff working in the NHS.”

All parking charges were abolished at most Scottish hospitals in 2008, but the country’s three PFI hospitals – the ERI, Glasgow Royal Infirmary and Ninewells Hospital in Dundee – still have charges because the Scottish Government says it would cost too much to buy out the right of the private consortia which built the hospitals to impose such fees.

The Unite union had called for all hospital car parking charges for NHS staff in Scotland to be abolished immediately as they tackled the coronavirus. And the issue was raised at last week’s First Ministers Questions by Lothian MSP and Tory health spokesman Miles Briggs.

Nicola Sturgeon said at the time that Ms Freeman was looking "urgently" into the matter, with a view to covering the cost or for the charges to be suspended.

Tom Waterson, Unison branch chair for NHS staff in Edinburgh, said:”After pressure from the trade unions it was agreed parking would become free. It’s a good example of partnership working with the NHS and Consort and it’s a welcome move,”

Mr Briggs also said the decision was a “welcome step forward”.

He said: “I believe staff and patients should not have to pay to park at hospitals and I will continue to campaign to scrap the parking charges after the three month period.

“I have also called on Edinburgh City Council to suspend parking bays round the hospital for staff and patients which I understand will be agreed.”

And the mother of one ERI staff member welcomed the announcement. “It’s high time,” she said. “They should have done it a fortnight ago.”

She said her son, a clinical support worker in operating theatres, could not rely on buses because of his shift times and normally got a lift to work but could no longer do so because of the coronavirus guidelines, so had been taking his car but having to pay.

“It has been costing money for him to go to work to do vital work. At a time like this it feels like profiteering because they have a captive audience.”