At the moment NHS trusts have responsibility for setting their own car parking prices and arrangements. However, by April of this year the all 206 Hospital trusts will be required to provide free parking for certain types of patients with reduced mobility (disabled blue badge holders) and frequent outpatients that have to manage long term conditions.
Staff working night shifts and parents of ill children will also have access to this proposal. This action by the UK government is aimed at reducing the impact and stress for those who are disproportionately affected by the expense of parking. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has also promised to look at car parking capacity across the country to try to find ways to mitigate the problems associated with parking provision for both hospitals and visitors.
In order to guarantee that free hospital parking will work efficiently in the future, the Department of Health will ascertain what parking options are the most effective e.g. free parking monitored by automatic number plate recognition technology or a process where these visitors can redeem the cost of parking afterwards through a ticket refund system.