Patients and their visitors may soon be exempt from hospital car park charges as a new consultation takes place.

An eight-week consultation has been launched regarding the issue of car parking fees for hospital patients and visitors in England, in an effort to make the system fairer.

Currently, car parking charges at NHS hospitals vary widely, averaging £1.09 an hour, although some charge up to £4 an hour.

The consultation will consider giving free parking, or only after a long stay, to all inpatients’ visitors; and also potentially scrap charges for outpatients who have to visit hospital for a series of appointments.

Alternatively, a cap would be placed on charges for those outpatients who fall into a ‘priority’ group and who have regular appointments.

Andy Burnham, UK Health Secretary, said: “I want to see a fairer and more consistent approach to parking across the NHS, which recognises the pressure that patients and their families come under.  People in hospital are often at a low point in their lives – emotionally and financially – and high parking charges can add to stress or limit visits from family and friends.  I have said I want a more people-centred NHS and that means giving more attention to these issues to get them right.

“At the moment charging practice varies greatly and the public have no clear sense of the principles beneath it.  In particular, I want an approach that helps the sickest people that have to spend the most time in hospital.”

However, many hospitals rely on the income they receive from the car parking charges. The Department of Health has stated that these losses would be compensated by ensuring a more efficient NHS, achieved by a reduction in bureaucracy and back-office charges.

Macmillan Cancer Support has estimated that, on average, patients make 53 trips to hospital during the course of their cancer treatment, spending around £325.

The charity has welcomed the consultation: “Charging vulnerable cancer patients while they are visiting hospital to receive life-saving treatment has caused needless distress for far too long and is nothing more than a tax on illness.”

The consultation will close on 23 February 2010. To find out more or to make your views heard, visit: http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Consultations/Liveconsultations/DH_110557