At best inconvenient and at worst unfair

Another health story in Swansea’s much loved local paper is a report on calls by tory health spokesman Andrew RT Davies for hospital car parking charges to be re-introduced. He maintains that “every pound spent on free parking is £1 less spent on cardiac services, stroke services and cancer treatment.”

His suggestion however seems to have struck quite a nerve with the editor who’s uncompromising comment is as follows:

Shameful idea of tax on sick

Today’s story from Assembly Conservative Shadow health spokesman Andrew RT Davies arguing hospitals should be allowed to bring back charges for car parking surely comes into the “You couldn’t make it up, could you?” category.

Two years after they were scrapped in Wales to universal applause, Mr Davies now says that maybe the issue needs to be looked at again.

Why?

We all know they were a tax on the sick. And we all know that they were at best inconvenient and at worst unfair.

Astonishingly, Mr Davies seems to think otherwise, despite assurances that funding has not been diverted away from key health services since the switch was made.

People who are attending hospital for treatment are already at a very low ebb. The last thing they should have to worry about is whether they have enough change to feed the meter and whether they will get back to their car before it is towed away.

So no Mr Davies, please do not pursue this shameful idea. You should have many other more pressing issues to occupy your time!

No grey area there. However, we would offer one slight correction; the decision to scrap charges in 2008 was not greeted with “universal applause”. Welsh Lib Dems, desperate for something to say, voiced similar grave concerns that money would be "taken out of front-line care, as the government has not announced that it will be giving any extra" etc.

Whether they would have the bottle to express an opinion one way or another these days is doubtful – far better to let the tories to advance the idea and take a stuffing. For ourselves, we are just a little intrigued by the reference in the editorial about inconvenience & unfairness and a similar turn of phrase used by Edwina Hart when she announced free parking.  Quite obviously a co-incidence, we’re sure.