The hon. Lady makes an excellent point, and I welcome the fact that the Government’s new guidelines suggest a concession for staff who may not be able to get to work by public transport. That is important, but it would be so much better if the charges were not there in the first place.
Concessions for patients at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust are largely good. There are £1 tickets for a day, including for terminally ill patients, people undergoing coronary care and those in an intensive therapy unit or in oncology and paediatrics, but not for those who may have suffered a premature birth, for example, or have complexities during maternity leave—my hon. Friend the Member for Harlow was right to raise those issues. The concessions are also for relatives attending the bereavement office but not for other relatives. An £8 weekly ticket is available for next of kin, which most people do not know about, and there are £1 weekly tickets for renal patients and people undergoing radiotherapy, but they still have to be applied for on the wards, and only after people have paid £3 for parking in the hospital in the first place. That is one of the absurdities of the current system of charging on entry, rather than on exit as the Government suggest.
I would like much better advertising of concessions, and I think a simpler system would be good as it would be easier for people to understand. As many colleagues have said, getting rid of parking charges altogether would put us in a better place. My only worry about that would be if it disincentivised hospitals from investing in capacity, because in hospitals like mine there is a clear need for new capacity. Lack of parking capacity at Worcester has been made worse by temporary disruption from the construction of a new radiotherapy unit—something I strongly support. Other hospitals, however, such as that in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough (Andrew Jones), have delivered multi-storey car parks in time for such upgrades to their hospital, and I wish that Worcestershire Royal hospital had been able to do that.
I welcome the fact that the planned breast unit at the hospital will come with its own parking, which I hope will contribute to addressing overall demand. I have raised the concerns of my constituents about hospital parking time and again, but it is right to show leadership in the House and for the Government to address the matter properly.
My final point is about accessibility and ease of payment. Asking people to pay in cash up front is unacceptable in this day and age. Worcester city centre has schemes where people can pay for parking by card or with their phone. People use those schemes; they are popular, and I urge Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust to consider how it can implement such a scheme to make it easier for people who do not have ready cash to hand. If I take one thing from this debate it is that I hope my trust acts like that of the right hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam (Paul Burstow), and reviews its policies on these issues immediately, taking a lead from the guidance the Government have set and the arguments made in the House.
6.57 pm