The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Staff at Johnson Community Hospital are set to be paying to park at work soon.
However, the two NHS bodies associated with the site in Spalding Road, Pinchbeck, both say they have “no plans” to introduce car parking charges for patients and visitors.
That is despite payment furniture being in place in the main car park since the hospital opened in 2010.
NHS Property Services owns and manages the site and Lincolnshire Community Health Services (LCHS) NHS Trust is a service provider.
The LCHS proposal to introduce car park charges covers all premises across the county that its staff operates out of.
Some LCHS employees who are based at United Lincolnshire Hospital Trust premises (such as Pilgrim Hospital) pay for car parking. All ULHT staff do.
The move – which could raise £300,000 annually – is said to make the situation fairer for all staff. Income would be “offset against any costs for monitoring the compliance and refurbishing the car parks”.
In a document to staff, head of workforce Kerry Swift said: “The organisation recognises that staff will be disappointed in having to contribute towards car parking charges and therefore will continue to review the process to minimise the impact that these changes may have on them.”
A consultation period ends on May 24. Charges could then be implemented on July 1.
A spokesman for LCHS said: “We can confirm that LCHS has no plans to implement charges [to patients and visitors] at Johnson Community Hospital. The site is owned and managed by NHS Property Services. Therefore LCHS is unable to make such a decision and implement charges on this site.”
NHS Property Services told The Voice it too had no plans to charge patients or visitors.
