Great Western Hospital worker's fury as hospital brings back car parking charges

Back in March, the Health Secretary Sajid Javid scrapped free parking for NHS workers following the easing of Covid measures.

However, that has been met with opposition from furious nurses and doctors right across the health service.

In the short-term Great Western Hospital NHS Foundation Trust decided not to bring park car parking charges straight away.

However, that all changed earlier in June when the hospital decided to change tack.

NHS staff at GWH are now paying £1.50 a day for parking. Pic Dave Cox.

This means every NHS worker who works at GWH will need to pay £1.50 a day for parking.

And now a local GWH nurse has called for NHS workers to walk out saying enough is enough.

The GWH health worker who did not want to be named said: “We have had enough of being underpaid, undervalued, underprivileged even I am furious at the fact staff have to pay just to go to work and save lives.

"We need a pay rise of more than three per cent, we need free parking, we need more funding and most importantly we need the government to listen to what we really need."

Great Western Hospital has defended its decision to bring back car parking charges.

In a lengthy statement, a spokesperson for the GWH Foundation Trust said: “Early on during the pandemic, car parking charges for staff and visitors were withdrawn at all Trusts and healthcare sites.

“On 29 March, the Department of Health and Social Care announced that the free parking arrangements for NHS staff would come to an end on 31 March and many Trusts re-introduced charging at this point.

“The Trust did not reintroduce these charges at that time and instead absorbed the costs involved in carrying on providing free parking until 13 June, when car parking charges were reinstated for staff at the pre-Covid rate of £1.50 per day.

“If we were to continue to provide free parking, we would not be able to make some of the investments we know are important to patient care and safety.”

Swindon South MP Sir Robert Buckland has already defended the government policy.

Speaking to the Adver back in March, Sir Robert said: “This was always going to be a temporary Covid measure. 

“I have always focused on the need for our dedicated NHS staff not to be unduly burdened with costs.

“I have looked again at our policy on parking and note that thanks to this Government's approach, over 90 per cent of hospital trusts in England already have free parking for those in greatest need, including staff working overnight.”