THE reintroduction of parking charges at a hospital in Bromsgrove has been criticised.
The Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust recently announced that people parking at Malvern Community Hospital and the Princess of Wales Community Hospital in Bromsgrove will pay parking charges from Monday, October 14.
The trust said that charges will apply to patients and visitors at the hospital. It comes after car parking charges were paused at both hospitals during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Though stays of up to 30 minutes will be free at both hospitals, parking for up to two hours will cost drivers £2.50, up to four hours will cost £3.50 and stays for longer than four hours will cost £4.
Parking for blue badge holders in designated spaces will remain free.
Reacting to the news that parking charges would be reintroduced, Advertiser reader Mike Marshall described it as a "tax on ill health" and said it is "wrong" to charge for parking at the hospital.
Another commenter, Ian Copeland added that parking "should be free at all hospitals."
Bromsgrove District Councillor Dr David Nicholl said he doesn't want to see the renewal of the charge "limiting" people's access to health services.
He confirmed that he will be looking to raise the issue with the council.
The councillor said: "I will raise this within Bromsgrove District Council, given the cost of living issues locally, as local Councillors in the area we don’t want to see the renewal of this charge limiting access to the NHS.
"Equally we also are aware of how stretched NHS finances are.”
A spokesperson for Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust said: "National funding was made available during the COVID-19 pandemic which allowed us to temporarily pause car parking charges.
"This funding ceased in 2022 and we had to make the difficult decision to reintroduce charges since then in line with national standards. There has been a delay in this process on two of our sites as we needed to update the parking systems.
"Parking remains free for Blue Badge holders and concessionary parking is available for some patient groups. We aim to keep charges as low as possible and have kept the rates the same as before the pandemic.
"All income generated from parking charges supports essential hospital and car park maintenance".
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