Pay Parking @ Hospitals: Legalized Highway Robbery?

Burnaby General Hospital: $4.50 per hour, every hour... No daily maximum...
Park there for 10 hours+ $45.00!!!
Park there for 24 hours= $108!!!
Legalized robbery I say!

At least on the street the city of Burnaby only charged $1 an hour, and the meters are only in effect 9am til 8pm!

 

Damm, I was so miffed, I mis-spelled Hospitals in the title...

 

That is insane. Some people have to be with injured or sick loved ones.

 

Hospitals rip you off anyway they can. They hit families at their low. Parking, food, TV service for patients...

 

... it's private property, they can charge what they want. if you don't like it don't park there ...

 

Hospitals and healthcare are publically funded. The rates that they charge are out of touch with reality and they are clearly preying on people. There was a neurologist who wrote an editorial in the CMAJ arguing that paid parking is a user-fee in disguise, which goes against the Canada Health Act.

Delta has a bylaw that prohibits paid parking which was implemented to prevent the Fraser Health Authority from installing meters. The FHA continually try to fight this.

See these quotes:

 

... they're funded by the government, not the public. and it is private proprety. thus they can charge what they want ...

 

and the government is funded by the public. You're splitting hairs.

It is private property, so they can charge what they want but what they are doing is essentially adding a hidden usage fee for health care which violates the Canada Health Act. Just morally, it's a scumbag move to overcharge on parking when patients and their families are already burdened by their disease.

 

... you might not like it, but there's nothing immoral about charging a fee for parking ...

 

... perhaps if the hospital parking lot is full they should have a valet park your car for you elsewhere too?

 

It's legal but how is it ethical? $108 for 24 hours is more than some people make in a working day. It wouldn't be a big deal if they charged reasonable rates.

 

... parking anywhere in the city can be frustrating and expensive ...

 

You have to pay for parking in the UK hospitals too.
The problem with that is the roads surrounding the hospital are always busy as people would rather walk a bit then pay the parking fees .

 

Here's the problem I have with hospital parking. Most of the parking lots at hospitals, you have to specify how long you will be before you buy the ticket. When you go to the hospital, you actually do not know how long you will be there. If all of a sudden while you are waiting, there is a bunch of people who have more serious injuries or illness than you, they will jump ahead of you. It could take 1 hour or 4 hours. If you only pay for 1 hour and then your parking runs out, you get ticketed as well.

I don't mind paying for parking, but at least charge us for the time we actually do spend in the lot and not make us overestimate all the time. For this reason, I actually make an effort when possible to not park at the hospital parking lots.

St. Paul's in downtown Vancouver used to have an attendant. When you leave, they charge you for the time spent. Just recently they got rid of the attendant and now you have to guess how long you will be there. I've seen this not just at hospitals. It seems like everywhere, they are taking out the attendants and putting in the pay stations. On top of that, they raise the price. They take out the service and make it more expensive, so it is a double whammy.

 

It's all about the $$$$.

 

My CPP Disability cheque is $574.63 a month, I pay approx $120-150.00 on parking a month alone. Why are we getting punished at every level for being sick?

 

Superchecker, cheeseshredder: I'm a reporter for Lower Mainland community newspapers and I'm looking for someone willing to comment on this issue.
604-575-5334 or FB message me with your contact info.

- Jeff Nagel, regional reporter for Black Press at the Surrey Leader.

 

$4.50 an hour is cheap........it is $6.00 an hour at VGH.

 

Hi Jeff, I guess I was just a little pissed that they don't offer up a daily maximum... Like maybe $4 an hour, but a daily max of say: $20, seems reasonable...
I just think that they are hitting people at some of their worst moments in life...
Many are at the hospital for some really grave/trying/stressful situations...
You've got a loved one going thru god knows what, and you also have to worry about a friken meter too????