Re: Hospital parking.
A writer in the Friday, April 29 paper claims that people rushing to the emergency department in distress should not have to fret about paying for parking.
If people are really sick as to require emergency care, they should not be driving anyway as they are a hazard to other people. It is far safer, for everyone else, to take a taxi or call an ambulance.
For scheduled operations or visiting relatives in hospital, all hospitals have transit service going to them and this should be used if people are of limited means.
Judy Brownoff is absolutely correct in saying that providing free parking at hospitals would take funding away from actually providing health services. Providing parking is very expensive, especially because the return on investment is so low due to minimum parking requirements.
The problem is that municipalities, as part of their bylaws, require hospitals to provide parking.
Even though they have no way of predicting how much parking needs to be provided.
If municipalities were really concerned about ensuring that health authorities provide the best possible care for the least amount of money, they would repeal the requirement for hospitals to provide parking in the first place.
If the hospital wants to be a little more fiscally responsible and provide even better health care for a populace that insists on driving, with all the negative health outcomes that that generates, then they should be able to outsource the parking services and put that money into providing good patient care. The primary purpose of any public health authority.
Eric Diller, Sidney