Hospital car parks 'add to stress'

11 March 2010

New research has found that visits to hospitals are made more stressful due to crowded and expensive car parks.

In a survey carried out for consumer watchdog Which?, half of the people questioned said they found the car park system to be an added stress.

More than two-thirds (67%) said they thought hospital car parks were too expensive.

Other reasons given as to why people experienced added stress when visiting a hospital were problems finding a space and confusing payment systems.

Of those question in the Which? research, 52% said they had problems finding a space to park, while 33% revealed that had to queue or wait for a space.

Once they had found a space, 33% faced further difficulty trying to pay the charges.

The poll found 70% of people had experienced a problem with parking and 49% said the difficulties made their visit more stressful.

Previous figures have shown that some hospitals make millions of pounds in annual profits from car park fees.

Which? conducted the survey as part of a response to the Department of Health's consultation on NHS car parking.

Which? chief executive Peter Vicary-Smith said: "It's outrageous that using an NHS hospital car park is such a problematic experience for so many people. Visiting hospital is stressful enough and people don't need the added burden of battling with the parking system."

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