Should hospital parking fees be abolished in Canada?

[dumpthemonarchy]

Totally agree. It's a ripoff right now.


Should hospital parking fees be abolished in Canada? - Your Community



Should hospital parking fees be abolished in Canada?

• November 28, 2011 3:33 PM |
• 
  Roy Chalmers works for the City of Calgary Parking Meter division, fixing' jammed meters. Hospital parking fees should be abolished, a medical journal editor says. (Dave Buston/Canadian Press)
  

A medical journal editorial says Canadian hospitals should do away with hospital parking fees, arguing they add avoidable stress to patients.

Writing in the Canadian Medical Association Journal Monday, editor in chief Dr. Rajendra Kale said the running meter is a needless distraction that interferes with medical appointments, and argued he's seen his own patients cut appointments short in order to avoid paying for an extra hour of parking.

"I think that parking fees can -- and sometimes do -- interfere with the quality of the interaction physicians have with patients," Kale said in an interview.

Kale also suggested such parking costs functioned like a disguised user fee. "Using revenue generated from such surrogate user fees for health care is against the health policy objective of the Canada Health Act and could become the subject of a legal challenge," he concluded.

Kale said phasing out parking fees wouldn't be a wallop for hospital pocketbooks, and pointed to Scotland and Wales as two places where the fees had already been successfully abolished.

Should hospital parking fees be abolished in Canada? Why or why not? Have you encountered costly fees or other parking frustrations during a recent hospital visit? Share your comments below.

 

[TenPenny]

So now, not only do we need to have medical everything covered, but also parking?

What about bus fares for people who don't have cars, shouldn't all bus runs that lead to hospitals be free? And taxis? Any taxi that takes someone to the hospital should be covered by the taxpayers? And gas money, for those who are driving, shouldn't that be covered?

 

[Walter]

My taxes are already paying for the patients' care; now you want me to pay for the visitors' parking, too. No thank-you.

 

[TenPenny]

My taxes are already paying for the patients' care; now you want me to pay for the visitors' parking, too. No thank-you.

I doubt that a wanker pays enough taxes to cover anything.

 

[karrie]

If you don't want to park there, take the public transit that taxes make damn near free in most cities. I'll be cabbing to the hospital today, wish I didn't have to pay that fee but geez, $10 each way to get me to and from medical care is still crazy cheap!

 

[Walter]

I doubt that a wanker pays enough taxes to cover anything.

If you know the tax code you never have to pay taxes.

 

[karrie]

Just another thought... the hospital parking fees also serve to keep space available in the lots for people who really need them. When my uncle was dying at the U of A, I took the LRT all the time, rather than take up a parking spot, because $15 to park versus $5 round trip on the LRT, made it a no brainer.

 

[dumpthemonarchy]

I like this idea because I've had kidney stones and I don't like the idea of driving myself to the hospital and paying $6 an hour on top of missing work and wages. So I park a bit farther away for free. And if you get a kidney stone attack at 2 am. they're are few buses. A taxi for me is about $20 to the hospital.