Hospital parking - the hidden cost

Your mother, father or child has been sent to hospital. You’re in a hurry to get there to be with them. You try to think of everything. Have you money for parking? How much will it cost?

With charges varying from €2.50 an hour to €15 for a day, parking charges can eat into hard-pressed income and add to the financial stress of illness for families. But do hospitals differ much in what they charge?

We did a mini-survey and analysis to get a snapshot of what patients and their families are paying around the country.

Analysis

For simplicity and straightforwardness, Louth General and St Luke’s, Kilkenny, came up trumps, charging a flat rate of €2 and €4 respectively, no matter how long you parked there.

Tullamore hospital was good value too, at €1 per visit or €5 for 24 hours.

Some hospitals had short-term and long-term car parks and charged differently for them. This included Portlaoise where the daily charge in the long-term car park was €3 but in the short-term car park charges started at €3 and went up every half an hour after.

Our Lady of Lourdes in Drogheda was expensive, charging €40 per 24 hours in the short-stay car park and €20 for 24 hours in the long-term one.

Sligo General was moderate, with a €3 charge for four hours or €6 for 24 hours.

Wexford General was dearer with a charge of €8 for four hours, although it offers a two-day pass at €10 and a five-day pass at €20.

Kerry General came in on the expensive side with a €12 daily rate and a seven-day ticket costing €35.

In Dublin, the charges were stiffer, with St Vincent’s, Elm Park, charging €14 for seven to 14 hours. Tallaght was more reasonable with a maximum daily charge of €10 and a seven-day entry pass for €30. Flexible day pass/multiple entries and exits were also available in Tallaght hospital for €12.50 for family who might need to visit several times a day.

One-hour stays varied from €2.50 in Tallaght to €2.70 in Cork University Hospital, €3 at Kerry General, €3.50 at Crumlin and €4 at Lourdes.

Some hospitals state that financial hardship cases can be discussed with security staff.

All hospitals have dedicated spaces for those with disability stickers on cars. Clamping applies in many hospitals.

Some hospital car parks are operated by outside companies who were awarded the contract through a tender process.

Car parks - a revenue generator

According to a ratemyhospital.ie survey, paying for a car parking space is “a major bugbear for hospital patients and visitors around the country”.

The worst hospital in relation to the availability of parking was the National Maternity Hospital in Holles Street and the best was Cappagh Orthopaedic Hospital.

Pay car parking is a considerable revenue-generating facility for hospitals, according to figures released by the HSE. Cork University Hospital (CUH) generated over €3m in revenue from its car park in 2014 and visitors to Wexford general paid €1,249,420 for parking in 2012, for example.

The HSE pointed out, however, that it costs €1.9m annually to meet the cost of staffing, equipment and general maintenance of the car park facilities at CUH.

Charges excessive - age action

Age Action Ireland carried out a survey among older people in Galway last October to find out what kinds of problems were affecting hospital users.

Of the 285 people surveyed, 68% who drove to their appointment found the cost of hospital parking to be excessive.

“Hospital parking charges can be a real struggle for some older people who are on a small, fixed income and may need to visit the hospital regularly,” says Justin Moran, Age Action’s head of advocacy and communications.

Ann Donnellan was one of the survey organisers: “We found that an outpatient block-booking system prevails in a lot of hospitals, with many patients having an appointment for the same time, say 10.15am, so you’re longer than expected at the hospital and therefore parking costs you more.

“We believe there should be a vouched system where if you were longer than reasonably expected, you should get a reduction or not have to pay at all. We are in touch with the HSE and politicians about outpatient service delivery issues like this.”

The other side of the story

Liam Keilthy, editor of Parking Ireland had this to say about hospital parking:

“There is no such thing as free parking. If hospitals were to provide free parking, the money would have to come out of the overall hospital budgets.

“Because public transport schedules don’t coincide with staff hours, most hospitals have to provide parking for staff. The money that comes in from visitors and patients goes into the pot to pay for all the parking costs – staff and visitor. VAT is also now chargeable at 23% on car park fees so that’s an extra cost for hospitals.

“Most hospitals didn’t introduce parking charges to make money but some do use it as revenue now as they see it brings in money. I don’t think hospital visitors should be given free parking any more than they should be given free coffee. Also, in most hospitals, those who are regular visitors, eg dialysis patients, get complimentary or discounted parking, as do priests who are in and out several times a day.

“In cities, funding multi-storey car parks is a huge cost. If they don’t charge a lot, they get people parking there to go shopping or to work – that has to be prevented to leave spaces for those who are hospital visitors.”

Costs of providing car parking space include:

“Typical costs per space are around €250/€500 per annum for surface parking and €750/€1,250 per annum for multi-storey or basement parking. A hospital with 500 parking spaces needs €125,000 to €250,000 per annum for car parks,” according to Liam.

THE IRISH CAR PARKING SECTOR

Market report 2010

“A key feature of hospital parking facilities is the demand for staff parking that exists at these car parks, as it is estimated that up to 75% of spaces are occupied by staff working at the hospital.

“This, combined with the fact that there is a continuous turnover of visitors to these parking facilities, as well as the fact that these sites are very often in urban centres where commuter parking needs to be discouraged, has led to the implementation of parking controls and charges at all of the main hospitals throughout Ireland.”

Search for info in parking charges

But how easy was it to find out what the charges were before going to a hospital? Was the information easy to access?

The answer is yes for some hospitals and no for others.

You would think that having the charges available on the hospital’s website or HSE webpage for each hospital would be essential but that wasn’t always the case.

While some hospitals have very clear information online, some have their charges embedded in patient information leaflets and others don’t include the parking charges in these leaflets at all when you do click on them.

Calls to hospitals to check prices meant getting through to the switchboard then being transferred to security personnel or to the car park company representative at those hospitals.

Clear presentation of charges online would help patients and visitors know where they stand financially as they head for a hospital to visit or accompany a loved one.