Tory call to scrap parking charges for staff and key groups of patients at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and other PFI hospitals

STAFF parking charges at Scotland’s PFI hospitals could be ended for a cost of £1.62 million a year, Conservatives have claimed.

Lothian MSP and Tory health spokesman Miles Briggs said it was not right that NHS staff should have to pay to park at their workplace, especially given the long and antisocial hours many of them had to do.

He said the Scottish Government was due to receive £7.5m from Westminster as a result of a change in hospital parking policy south of the border.

And he called on ministers to use the cash to cover staff parking and refund parking charges for certain groups, such as disabled patients and parents of sick children staying overnight.

Parking at most of Scotland’s hospitals was made free by the SNP in 2008, but it said the cost of extending the policy to privately financed sites, like Edinburgh’s Royal Infirmary, were prohibitively expensive.

When NHS Lothian tried to negotiate with PFI consortium Consort to scrap parking charges altogether at the ERI in 2009, the price demanded was £14.5m.

Mr Briggs said: “It was not realistic to buy the contract out - it could have been £50m for all three PFI hospitals.

“But we could do a refund scheme which would deliver a cheaper solution by refunding NHS staff and key groups.”

He said there were 1,125 dedicated staff parking spaces at the ERI and the most expensive staff permit cost £255 a year, which would work out at £286,875 per year.

The Tories also calculated it would cost £202,000 per year to cover staff parking at Tayside’s Ninewells Hospital and £1.13m at Glasgow Royal Infirmary.

Mr Briggs said: “SNP ministers have failed to get to grips with the problem of parking at Scottish hospitals and the difficulties staff and patients have to get parked for appointments or shifts.

“This has clearly not been a priority for the SNP who yet again are failing to look after those who look after us.

“The Scottish Conservatives have called for a review of parking at all hospital sites and pledged to refund NHS staff the cost of parking at hospitals, made affordable thanks to Barnett consequentials.”

A spokesman for Health Secretary Jeane Freeman: “The Scottish Government abolished car park fees at all NHS-owned hospitals across Scotland in December 2008 – a move which has saved patients, visitors and staff more than £39 million.

“We would like to be able to scrap car park charges at PFI car parks, but contractually we are unable to do so.

“The Tories enthusiastically supported Labour’s discredited PFI scheme - so if they want to be taken seriously on this issue then they first need to apologise to the tens of thousands of hospital patients, staff and visitors who have had to pay these charges.

“We are investing record levels in excess of £15 billion in health and social care and we will continue to protect our frontline services.

“The 2020/21 budget delivers an additional £100 million to the health portfolio, over and above passing on every penny of health resource and capital consequentials in full.

“We expect all NHS boards to make best use of resources to deliver high quality services for the communities for which they are responsible.”