THE hospital trust which runs Basingstoke hospital has back tracked after introducing parking charges.

As previously reported in The Gazette the Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust took the decision to scrap the blanket free parking at Basingstoke hospital for patients from July 1.

This meant that patients would be forced to pay £1.50 for 30 minutes to an hour and £3 for one hour to 24 hours

However, following backlash from patients and support groups a decision was made at a meeting of the board of directors for the trust, which runs Basingstoke hospital, Andover War Memorial Hospital and Royal Hampshire County Hospital, in Winchester, to reinstate the free parking option for those eligible for concessionary rates.

The Trust benchmarked its own concessionary schemes against other local trusts and found that the majority charge at reduced rates for the majority of users.

However, recognising the concerns of the Cancer Services Partnership, and other patient groups, and having taken hospital car park users views into consideration, the Trust decision has been made to re-introduce free parking to those eligible for concessionary rates.

Alex Whitfield, chief executive of Hampshire Hospitals said: "I know people feel very strongly about parking charges when they attend hospital and even the concessionary rates we were charging were challenging for some patients.

“We heard concerns from particular groups, for example patients coming for chemotherapy and parents and carers of children who are in hospital.

“Because we take feedback from our users very seriously, we have reviewed our charges, and made the decision to offer free parking to those users who had previously been charged reduced rates.

“Our parking charges go directly into helping us fund patient care, and we know that other hospitals do charge concessionary rates, but we feel this is the right decision for us and our patients."

One of the groups who put pressure on the trust to bring back the free charges back to parking at the hospital was the Cancer Services Partnership.

The group is keen to improve the lives of those living with and beyond cancer.

Chair or the group, Frankie Webb, welcomed the decision to reinstate the free parking charges.

She said: “We are delighted the Trust have listened to the views not only of our group, but other important voluntary care and support groups in the hospital’s area.

“This vital change will not only reduce costs for cancer patients but also reduce their stress at what is already a very stressful time for them.”

Those who were previously receiving concessionary rates and are eligible for free parking are:

• Patients attending for chemotherapy.

• Patients/visitors attending every day after one week of attendance.

• Outpatients who have been attending for more than two weeks and continue to attend at least twice a week with the same illness or condition.

• Visitors to patients being cared for in the Intensive Care Unit or the neonatal unit.

• Visitors to inpatients whose stay in hospital has been more than one week, providing they are visiting every day.

• Visitors to inpatients whose stay in hospital has been two weeks or more, providing they are visiting at least twice per week.

• Carers staying overnight with children who are inpatients.

With the reintroduction of concessionary parking the following category was added to the list:

• Relatives or carers of patients who are receiving end of life care.