Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust has announced changes to public car parking charges, effective from 1 May 2018.
Like many parts of the NHS, Liverpool Women’s is experiencing significant financial pressures. For the 2018/19 financial year we have a cost improvement target of £3.6m and we also expect to have a financial control total from our regulator which will be much more challenging than in previous years.
Rather than reducing investment in patient services we are now at a stage where we need to consider other options to address our financial challenge. We have therefore made the difficult decision to increase the cost of our patient and visitor car parking.
Parking charges have not increased at Liverpool Women’s since 2015 and the new rises are comparative with other NHS Trusts in the region that are based close to busy city centres.
From 1 May 2018 the new prices will be as follows:
| 0 – 30 minutes | Free |
| 30 mins – 2 hours | £3.60 |
| 2 – 4 hours | £4.50 |
| 4 – 6 hours | £7.50 |
| 6 – 24 hours | £9.80 |
| Weekly concession | £20.00 |
| Blue badge holders parked in marked disabled bays | Free |
As well as increasing the free parking time from 20 - 30 minutes, concessions remain available for a number of patient and carer groups, so that people who attend hospital frequently or have a long stay in hospital are not financially disadvantaged.
Disabled bays are available at all entrances to the site and parking is free for all blue badge holders. If all disabled spaces are occupied, any blue badge holders are able to receive a free parking pass from reception for use of the main car parks.
In some circumstances parking is free for patients/visitors throughout their stay. The Trust considers all reasonable requests and this would be discussed with members of staff in the relevant area in the first instance. Examples include; parents with babies on the Neonatal Unit, Oncology patients returning for regular clinic visits, and families of patients at end of life.
Jonathan Lofthouse, Turnaround Director at Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust said:
“We understand that not everyone agrees with charging for hospital car parking and we acknowledge that many of our patients and visitors will not be pleased about these changes.
"However, due to the Trust’s financial challenge we have to consider all options for making cost improvements that do not impact on the clinical services that we provide to patients. We have not taken this decision lightly and despite the financial pressures over the last few years we have resisted increasing the charges for our car parks up to now. Unfortunately the Trust now finds itself in a situation where it has no choice but to make difficult decisions like this.
“During the last three years since the most recent increase to our car parking charges, inflation has increased as well as the ongoing costs to run and maintain the car parks, which go up year-on-year. During this time of significant financial pressure for the Trust, we have to make some difficult choices.
“Before announcing these rises we conducted a detailed analysis of current charges and made comparisons with other NHS Trusts across the region to ensure that our prices were still in line with other Trusts in a similar city location.
“The money we recoup from car parking will help us to address our financial challenge and also avoids any direct impact on patient care which would occur if we had to reduce investment in our clinical services.”
The changes will come into effect from 1 May 2018.