50p moan highlights error in infirmary's car park charges
Hospitals bosses have apologised and promised to try to iron out problems which meant a visitor was overcharged for parking at Leicester Royal Infirmary.
David Ellison was annoyed to find he faced a charge of £3.50 for just under three hours when he came to leave – despite the displayed charges saying it should have been £3.
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Mr Ellison had parked in the infirmary car park at 5.13am to take a family member to the accident and emergency department on Saturday, and came to pay at 8.03am.
He said: "I didn't know long I was going to be there which is why I used the car park, but when I came to leave the charge differed from advertised tariff.
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"I attempted to draw this to the attention of the staff at the infirmary, including security staff.
"I wanted to alert the authorities to this inconsistency so they would have the ability to rectify the matter immediately and make sure other people were not overcharged.
"The only response given was that this was nothing to do with the infirmary or the hospital trust and I needed to raise the matter with Serco, which operates the car park."
Mr Ellison, from Barrow Upon Soar, said: "I felt aggrieved at being overcharged, not being able to address the issue in person at the time and that no-one was prepared to deal with this.
"My initial reaction was that they had put up the car parking charges and not changed the signs.
"When I contacted Serco they couldn't really explain, but now I have heard from Leicester's hospitals who said that it has highlighted a problem in the system."
Hospital bosses have now promised a refund of the £3.50 charge, which Mr Ellison is donating to the hospitals' Our Space Appeal to revamp facilities for children, teenagers and young people suffering from cancer.
He said: "It was never about the 50p, but it does seem to have highlighted a problem in the system."
A spokesman for Leicester's hospitals, dealing with the inquiry for Serco, said: "I would like to thank Mr Ellison for bringing this anomaly to our attention.
"We are looking into it. In the meantime we will be contacting Mr Ellison to apologise for the inconvenience this has caused and to arrange to reimburse his fee."
Comments
by llamalamb
Friday, January 11 2013, 11:24PM
“It is a tax on the sick.
The LRI must be raking it in.”
by Stoned
Friday, January 11 2013, 10:44AM
“Makes you wonder how long this has been going on for. It might only be 50p but with such a massively busy car park this must put a tidy extra sum into Serco's pockets. I imagine many people don't even check the charges and just pay and go. So now this 'anomaly' has been brought to the attention of the L.R.I., and until it is rectified, I hope that someone is patrolling the car park, advising motorists of the problem and handing out 50p coins to those who are being overcharged......or is that just wishful thinking?”