Stop hospital parking charges, photo Mary Finch

Stop hospital parking charges, photo Mary Finch   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

The Socialist Party campaign to scrap hospital parking charges continues. The majority of people who signed our petition on 5 September were NHS staff or relatives.

A parent, whose daughter had chemotherapy, said they have been fighting for a whole year to get back parking payments they are entitled to. Private companies make millions of pounds profit off car parks, and are trying to keep money cancer patients and family had to pay in order to use the hospital.

The mum of a hospital worker said her daughter had free parking taken off her when she changed job within the hospital. A healthcare assistant took one of our ‘fight to end low pay’ leaflets – when the free parking ended, she and her co-workers felt the financial pressure again.

The dad of a nurse signed the petition, but also took the time to chat to us as a construction worker dismayed at the serious lack of Covid protection across some sites in Coventry. Health workers need decent pay, our NHS should not be subject to PFI profiteers, our workplaces – offices, hospitals and building sites – can and should be safe.

We have a constant bitter fight for those basics under capitalism. The Socialist Party fights with all workers now. But we want a future without capitalism, where we don’t have to fight.

Adam Harmsworth, Coventry Socialist Party