Abolish Parking Fees for Cancer Patients, Charities Say

Cancer organizations in England want hospitals to follow Scotland’s example and abolish the parking charges for cancer patients who visit the hospitals for chemotherapy.

Leading the call for scrapping the fee is Macmillan Cancer Support who say that money saved by hospitals by delivering a six-week course of radiotherapy for outpatients could be utilized more effectively by making parking charges free of costs for patients who visit the hospitals to undergo potentially lifesaving therapy.

Hospitals in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales have all abolished such charges with England being the only country in Great Britain where hospitals set their own parking fee.

“The governments of each other British nation have seen sense and brought in free hospital parking, now we are calling on the Westminster Government to do the same. Hospitals save money by treating cancer patients as out-patients, so there is no possible reason to then charge them when they get to hospital”, said Ciaran Devane, who is the chief executive of Macmillan Cancer Support.


Source-Medindia
RAS