Parking charges suspended at hospitals for 12 weeks

Health secretary Jeane Freeman has announced parking charges will be temporarily suspended at three of Scotland’s hospitals for 12 weeks.

The suspension will come into force on Monday and applies to Glasgow Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and Ninewells Hospital in Dundee.

The three sites are the last remaining hospitals in Scotland to charge car parking fees, after charges for NHS car parks were scrapped in 2008.

The move comes after repeated calls for the charges to be scrapped during coronavirus, as it will largely affect frontline NHS staff.

Most health boards in Scotland have now banned visitors from entering hospitals.

The three hospitals are the only ones in Scotland which still charge because their car parks are owned by private contractors.

The decision comes after councils including Edinburgh and Glasgow suspended all parking charges in a bid to support key workers earlier this week.

A spokesperson for NHS Tayside, whose Ninewells car parks are run by Saba Parking, said: “NHS Tayside and Saba have been working together over the past few days to agree the temporary suspension of charges.

“The two organisations are now finalising how the temporary arrangements will work in practice and we will be sharing this detail with our staff and the public in the coming day.”