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Norman Wells wrote:

A small charge payable to the hospital that is expensively treating you
or a person you think enough of to be visiting. It's not too much to
ask surely?

I don't mind paying. What I object to is not being able to find a
parking space.

Bill

Circumventing Patientline
 

Jim Lesurf wrote:
In article , Norman Wells
wrote:

The alternative is for the NHS to become a car park company
establishing and running free or subsidised car parks all over the
place not only for the patients but their sisters and their cousins
and their aunts as well. If there are limited funds available to
the NHS, as there always are, isn't it better that those funds
should be spent on medical facilities rather than running car parks?

Its a nice rhetorical question, based on a presumed dichotomy. But the
reality is that such 'non medical' things may well have an impact on
the medical side, and the outcome, and how soon people can get back
to being involved in society. Life isn't always as simple as the
rhetorical questions politicians like to 'ask'.

I don't think car parking charges have any bearing whatsoever on medical
outcomes. People, whether patients or visitors, shouldn't therefore
begrudge paying them, which will inevitably represent only a tiny
fraction of the cost of the treatment.

As regard the provision of TVs, I think the bearing on medical outcomes
is too tenuous to merit serious consideration for free provision. What
is it with mean and miserable patients who resent paying just the price
of a pint or two for TV when they're receiving all their other
facilities, including food, drink and endless pretty nurses, entirely
free of charge?

Circumventing Patientline
 

On Sun, 18 Mar 2012 18:06:00 +0000, Bill Wright
wrote:

Jim Lesurf wrote:

Its a nice rhetorical question, based on a presumed dichotomy. But the
reality is that such 'non medical' things may well have an impact on the
medical side, and the outcome, and how soon people can get back to being
involved in society. Life isn't always as simple as the rhetorical
questions politicians like to 'ask'.

Patient surveys about the hospital experience usually mention parking
problems. It is obviously a major concern. Just at the time when you're
stressed or feeling badly you don't want parking hassle.

You are correct in referring to parking 'problems' rather than
'charges'.
Often the stress comes from worrying whether there will actually be a
space, rather than how much it costs. No doubt if charges were reduced
the car parks would be full even more often.

Circumventing Patientline
 

In article ,
wrote:
On Sun, 18 Mar 2012 18:06:00 +0000, Bill Wright
wrote:

Jim Lesurf wrote:

Its a nice rhetorical question, based on a presumed dichotomy. But the
reality is that such 'non medical' things may well have an impact on the
medical side, and the outcome, and how soon people can get back to being
involved in society. Life isn't always as simple as the rhetorical
questions politicians like to 'ask'.

Patient surveys about the hospital experience usually mention parking
problems. It is obviously a major concern. Just at the time when you're
stressed or feeling badly you don't want parking hassle.

You are correct in referring to parking 'problems' rather than
'charges'.
Often the stress comes from worrying whether there will actually be a
space, rather than how much it costs. No doubt if charges were reduced
the car parks would be full even more often.

and, with pay in advance, you can easily end up with a penalty for
overstaying the time you had booked, if the specialist is running late
(quite usual).

--
From KT24

Using a RISC OS computer running v5.18

Circumventing Patientline
 

On Sun, 18 Mar 2012 18:29:58 +0000 (GMT), charles
wrote:

In article ,
wrote:
On Sun, 18 Mar 2012 18:06:00 +0000, Bill Wright
wrote:

Jim Lesurf wrote:

Its a nice rhetorical question, based on a presumed dichotomy. But the
reality is that such 'non medical' things may well have an impact on the
medical side, and the outcome, and how soon people can get back to being
involved in society. Life isn't always as simple as the rhetorical
questions politicians like to 'ask'.

Patient surveys about the hospital experience usually mention parking
problems. It is obviously a major concern. Just at the time when you're
stressed or feeling badly you don't want parking hassle.

You are correct in referring to parking 'problems' rather than
'charges'.
Often the stress comes from worrying whether there will actually be a
space, rather than how much it costs. No doubt if charges were reduced
the car parks would be full even more often.

and, with pay in advance, you can easily end up with a penalty for
overstaying the time you had booked, if the specialist is running late
(quite usual).

I would be less concerned about the cost than about having the correct
coinage to make payment.

It is undoubtedly an emotive subject - taxing the sick, taking money
from nurses on low wages etc.

Circumventing Patientline
 

In message , Scott
writes



I would be less concerned about the cost than about having the correct
coinage to make payment.

Exact coinage? These days, most pay-as-you-leave machines give change -
and take plastic.
--
ian

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On 18/03/2012 13:47, Jim Lesurf wrote:

Its a nice rhetorical question, based on a presumed dichotomy. But the
reality is that such 'non medical' things may well have an impact on the
medical side, and the outcome, and how soon people can get back to being
involved in society. Life isn't always as simple as the rhetorical
questions politicians like to 'ask'.

Its a nice rhetorical answer, based on the assumption that no study has
been carried out to see if the benefits of which you speak are
outweighed in overall outcome by the path chosen.

(and indeed this is a rhetorical comment, since I don't know what study
(if any) as been carried out!)


--
Cheers,

John.

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Circumventing Patientline
 

On Sun, 18 Mar 2012 18:13:30 -0000, "Norman Wells"
wrote:

What
is it with mean and miserable patients who resent paying just the price
of a pint or two for TV when they're receiving all their other
facilities, including food, drink and endless pretty nurses, entirely
free of charge?

You've never paid National Insurance, then?

--
Alan White
Mozilla Firefox and Forte Agent.
By Loch Long, twenty-eight miles NW of Glasgow, Scotland.
Webcam and weather:- http://windycroft.co.uk/weather

Circumventing Patientline
 

On 18/03/2012 15:35, tim.... wrote:
"Norman wrote in message
...
Brian Gaff wrote:
Yes I had to laugh the other day when an ex chief exec of a hospital
trust said exactly that after coming out of hospital. One assumes as
she had been in charge she must have been party to the installation
in the first place. Double standards or what? Its almost as bad as
hospital car parking charges. Brian

There's another way of looking at those, though. Why shouldn't hospital
patients and their visitors pay a little bit more for facilities that they
are the ones using? They're the ones who are benefitting from the medical
treatment after all, and a substantial proportion of the money raised goes
back into hospital funds.

wrt to parking you're going to get the same answer that I posted the last
time that this was asked.

There are many cases where hospitals have moved from (expensive), easy to
get to, town centre locations to cheaper out of the way edge of town
locations which are only accessible by car.

ISTM most unreasonable for somebody (anybody), offering a monopoly service,
to move to an out of the way location for *their* convenience and then
charge the people that they have forced an inconvenient journey upon to get
to them, to pay to park as a revenue stream.

ISTM its also most unreasonable that people expect all the care and
facilities that modern medicine can provide to be made available in
outdated small buildings based in town where expansion is a costly,
complex, and bureaucratic minefield...

You can't have it both ways with regard to location. The same logic
applies to supermarkets etc.


--
Cheers,

John.

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Circumventing Patientline
 

On 18/03/2012 17:04, Norman Wells wrote:

ISTM most unreasonable for somebody (anybody), offering a monopoly
service, to move to an out of the way location for *their*
convenience and then charge the people that they have forced an
inconvenient journey upon to get to them, to pay to park as a revenue
stream.

A small charge payable to the hospital that is expensively treating you
or a person you think enough of to be visiting. It's not too much to ask
surely?

It does depend a little on the actual circumstances. It helps when they
car park in question has a method for reducing that cost in cases of
need (medical or financial). Paying three quid a visit for a day or two
may not be a problem, but if needing to do it 7 days a week for a month
or more*, could become quite a burden on a family.

* Especially if the need to visit is predicated on the requirement to
stop an elderly relative from being starved to death due to an inability
to feed themselves, and staff too busy (or worse) to actually do it for
them.


--
Cheers,

John.

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