I may be hated at for this - I don't think NHS parking should be free, especially for hospitals near towns/cities. It is very difficult to ensure the parking is actually used for users of the hospital.
Replies
I think it should be free if you're visiting the hospital for health reasons, like when you have to get a ticket from the checkout at the supermarket. And charged for visitors except in special circumstances (when our son was in critical care after being born, we got a parking pass so I could visit)
aug 31, 2025, 2:43 pm • 0 0 • view
This in Oxford JR, which has the stupidest ratio of parking spaces to hospital capacity ever seen; the parking pass allowed use of staff car parks as well as visitors, which meant you could get a space in "as little as" 30 minutes after arrival...
aug 31, 2025, 2:43 pm • 0 0 • view
Few supermarkets do this, and someone can probably make an excuse. I'd rather everyone who didn't need to drive to hospital didn't.
aug 31, 2025, 3:05 pm • 0 0 • view
Oxford is a case in point. Basically the only provider of a number of Oxfordshire health services is Oxford JR. Oxfordshire meanwhile is a long rural county. Driving is the only practical option for most people, patients and staff alike.
aug 31, 2025, 3:08 pm • 0 0 • view
Oxford has one of the country’s best bus services, though?
aug 31, 2025, 4:13 pm • 0 0 • view
For people in Oxford it's not bad, though views would differ depending where you are. Oxfordshire though, bus service is city-centric. The council mandated a connection one. This means despite so many efforts to make car journeys longer it still takes longer on the bus. Working people are time poor.
sep 1, 2025, 6:08 am • 0 0 • view
Connections are, in every country in the world except the UK, better than point-to-point. Point-to-point is only preferred in the UK because we don’t have free transfers, and even day passes often don’t work between operators.
sep 3, 2025, 1:14 am • 0 0 • view