Free car parking for NHS workers will be coming to an end on Friday, April 1.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid announced the changes to the perk, which was originally introduced during the coronavirus pandemic. On behalf of the Government, he offered his thanks to frontline NHS workers for their ‘tireless work to keep people safe’ over the past two years.
The Department of Health and Social Care said that the broader policy was temporary and had been introduced "for the duration of the pandemic". It added that running the scheme had cost around £130million over nearly two years.
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The policy was originally announced in March 2020 after more than 400,000 people signed a petition calling for free parking for NHS workers. Rachel Harrison, national officer for the GMB union, described charging healthcare staff for parking as a "a sick joke", after they "risked their lives during the pandemic".
She told the PA news agency: "After the years of Tory cuts NHS trusts are struggling, we know. But scrabbling the money back off hard-up workers is not the answer. The government must now legislate for free hospital staff parking once and for all."
Aintree, Royal and Broadgreen NHS trusts have all confirmed that the charges will be in place in their hospitals once again after Friday. A freedom of information request made by the GMB union previously found that staff were paying up to £1,300 a year to park at work.
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