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Free parking at our hospitals

Now here's an idea whose time has come - free parking at hospitals. Maybe now that the Canadian Medical Association Journal is saying it, it will have an impact. How crazy is it to stress people out just that little bit more  when they're going through an illness or something worse than by charging them to park?
And once we're offering it free, how about offering more of it, too? Can't believe they built that new parkade  at Royal Jubilee hospital at a capacity that was well below what's actually needed.

Comments

Caron said…
I can remember a time when hospitals in Edmonton did not charge for parking. Parking was free for everyone. As a social worker who, in recent years, heard frequently from patients and their families about the prohibitive costs of parking, I know that it is an added stress. In some cases people are already financially strapped because of illness and missed work, and in most cases people are already frazzled with worry over the illness itself.
Justine Jackson, a senior vice-president and chief financial officer at Toronto’s University Health Network, says, “It’s not quite a user fee because patients do have a choice. They don’t have to drive. They can take public transit. So the fact that they prefer to drive is a choice they make.” Tell that to the woman who has just had a baby, or the senior who has had surgery, or the man who has a debilitating, painful condition – hop on the bus!
9:33 AM
Anonymous said…
I'd be OK with paying for parking if I got the bill when I was leaving the parking lot. But metered parking means you have to keep dashing out to feed the damn meter. And if you're dealing with a crisis, you might forget. Then you get a ticket that amounts to the price of a few days of parking. It does seem like an opportunistic plot to put the thumbscrews on families who are already reeling from a crisis.
Liz
9:44 PM
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