The Scottish government ban on hospital parking charges came into effect on the 1st of January leaving England the only part of the UK where everyone has to pay to park on hospital car parks.
Hospital car parks have been free to use in Wales since April and in Northern Ireland, chronically ill patients and their visitors were also expempted from parking charges last year. Now Scotland has joined them by abolishing parking charges in all but three hospitals north of the border where the car parks are covered by a PFI agreement.
The cost of being ill in England is increasing year on year thanks to the indifference of the British government to the needs of the English while the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish governments look after their own people. The price of prescriptions is rising every year in England but in Wales they are free, in Scotland they will be free this year and in Northern Ireland they will be free from next year.
A spokesman for the British Department of Health said that abolishing parking charges in England wouldn’t be a “sensible use” of limited NHS resources yet in December the NHS in England reported a budget surplus of £2.1bn for the 2007-08 financial year. That’s £2.1bn of profit made by the NHS in England from charging cancer patients for life-saving medication and charging relatives of terminally ill patients to park when they visit their loved ones in hospital. The NHS in England raises £430m a year in prescription charges.
What the accountants, managers and consultants at the British Department of Health think is a “sensible use” of English taxes isn’t necessarily (or often) what the English taxpayer thinks their money should be spent on and what most of us think is not a “sensible use” of our taxes is subsidising hospital car parking and prescriptions in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland while we still have to pay ourselves.
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Britain is a geographical and political term, as we know there is no such thing as the British nation.
Unfortunately it’s role politically is not to improve the social, educational and financial lot of the peoples of these islands, these are secondary to its main aim which is the pursuit of power on the international stage for ‘Britain’s’ ruling elite.
It’s in all our interests that the power base which is Britain be dismantled to allow our innate genius and our natural resources to be used to reshape and greatly improve the lives of the peoples of Scotland, England and Wales rather than be poured into the bottomless military pit necessary to maintain our current international power status.
The first step towards this is for these great nations which live in the island of Britain to become independent political units cooperating to improve the living standards of our respective peoples.
To that end the CEP has the full support of every nationalist in Scotland and Wales…..and no doubt Cornwall too.
January 4th, 2009 at 11:20 amCornwall is not a nation it is a part of England and that is not going to change, i would sincerely doubt the sanity of any so called ‘Cornish Nationalist’ if they want Cornwall to become what Scotland and Wales is destined to be, or actually already are, a weak feeble and irrelevant little EU Region.
January 6th, 2009 at 2:46 pmThe practabilities of whether Cornwall wants to be come a seperate nation or not is Cornwalls problem.
January 7th, 2009 at 7:03 amPersonally i am not fussed either way as long England does not have to pay.
They certainly have influence behind the scenes in Westminster for there cause, with local Politicians,& others ( the last Bishop of Truro)
They could pursue automony within a English Parliament which would create a united front in England,Part of the Eng-Dem manifesto.
When challenged ministers say that it is a matter of priorities. Like providing ambulances?:
January 10th, 2009 at 10:44 amttp://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/4037837.Pensioners_with_broken_leg_waits_70_minutes_for_ambulance/
They also say that there are reduced waiting times in England but we all know those stats are massaged. Public subscription also has to support air ambulances in Egnland. Moreover, I do not know what it is like in Scotland, Wales and NI but after twelve years of promises we still have mixed wards. In addition maternity services are in meltdown despite more promises.
January 10th, 2009 at 1:19 pmThe quality of life in England is on the edge of a sink, the waste trap looms,
The economic mess much created by Neo Labour,punishes the hard working-tax payer, Rewards the useless,no end
The Discrimination within the NHS in England ,is appalling,people dying for all senseless reasons & stupid management,incapable,with fat bank accounts.
Just like Neo labour,no one is held accountable,if found out, are paid off handsomely,with no comebacks
Agency Staff (some less qualified) on £200 pound a hour, because not enough skilledworkers available. A absolute Disgrace.
January 10th, 2009 at 3:03 pmPoliticians completely out of touch , with reality, But Surely a day of reckoning, will have to come , with accountability.
I don’t think the answer to “subsidising hospital car parking and prescriptions in Wales” is to push Wales away, it is to examine why these things happened in Wales, we were the first to do both.
If you are sick, or a member of your family is sick, or a friend , why should the visitor be penalised when taking comfort to the person in a hospital bed, it is only an accountant or administrator who could look you in the eye and give any reason. It’s wrong, in Wales we considered the human aspect of life during illness and took the right decision not to penalise the sick person, because this is exactly what it is, a penalty on being sick.
It’s time everyone in England shouted to remove the penalty on being sick.
Free prescriptions, well they are not free, we all pay for them, every taxpayer in the UK. In Wales, almost a decade ago the question was asked, what happens when people do not complete their medication, and the answer was, the person becomes sick once again and then more difficult to treat, particularly when the failure to complete the treatment results in antibiotic resistance. So the reason is not benevolence, it is good management.
Again, you are the taxpayers, tell government you want the same good management that the Welsh have, it’s your taxes.
Our hospitals are as bad as those in England by the way, and we have longer waiting times, but no parking or prescription fees.
January 12th, 2009 at 2:57 pmI say out with this prime minister. What has happened to Britain. We let an un-elected person take power of what was once a great country.
What ruin this labour government has brought upon us.
Brown led the G8 deregulating the banks. Out with him and his cronies.
Time to stand and fight together Britain, before this labour government destroys us all!
March 6th, 2009 at 3:08 pm