Reintroduction of car parking charges at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals for patients and visitors from Monday 30th November
13th of December, 2020
Please see below for your information a letter from Karen Partington, Chief Executive at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the Preston and Chorley hospital sites.
"I am writing to you let you know about of the reintroduction of car parking charges at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals for patients and visitors from Monday 30th November.
We have been very pleased to provide free car parking to staff, visitors and patients during the last eight months. This has enabled our car parks to be used more flexibly and with fewer visitors on site, staff have sometimes made use of visitor car parking. However, in the winter period our hospitals are busier than ever, and it has become necessary to re-introduce some car park management processes rather than continue with the first come first served approach adopted during the early stages of the pandemic.
As you will know, local acute hospital Trusts in the Lancashire and South Cumbria region work closely on many projects, so in the interests of fairness and to make it as clear as possible to patients who access care on different sites, we have agreed to reintroduce car park charges for patients and visitors at the same time. We understand we are amongst the last to do so. NHS Trusts are not funded to provide free car parking, and the revenue raised from this will be used to contribute to patient care. A number of concessions are in place for patients and visitors – these are available on our website, and our staff are very good at ensuring that people are aware of these.
We will be updating our website, putting posters and signage up, posting on social media and working with our local media to ensure our local community stays informed. However we would be very grateful if you could share this information with your networks. The link to the relevant section of our website is attached here
Please note that for the foreseeable future, staff car parking at the Royal Preston Hospital, Chorley and South Ribble Hospital and a number of off-site car parks will remain free of charge, however due to the demand for spaces staff need to have the appropriate permits which are issued in line with criteria agreed with our staff-side and Governors following consultation with staff.
Thank you for your on-going support. Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you need any further information.
Yours sincerely
Karen Partington, Chief Executive