Student nurse given parking fine at hospital car park

A student nurse has been handed a parking fine after a “stressful” 13-hours shift at a hospital car park, sparking calls from the public for the government to resume free parking for NHS staff while the pandemic continues to rage.

Twenty-three-year-old Athena told The Independent that she was “frankly not in a position” to pay the £35 fine and is trying to get it waived.

“I’m a single parent, I work full-time, 40 hours a week, and I work another job on top of that to pay for my flat,” she said. “It was really demoralising to come out of a very stressful shift and find that on my car.”

She said it was a national problem that many student nurses are not granted parking permits from the hospitals they work at, making them feel undervalued by the NHS.

The government announced that it would provide free car parking for NHS and social care staff in March, when the national coronavirus lockdown was imposed. The scheme wound down between the end of September and the start of October, but Athena claims no notice was issued by the hospital she works at to inform staff they would be required to get a permit or pay £10 daily for parking again.

Athena said she and several other members of staff were caught out by the lack of notice from the hospital, coupled with busy shifts that meant they could not go and pay the parking fee at any point.

Having free parking during the pandemic gave her and her colleagues “one less thing to stress about”, but now that the fines were back, it added pressure on the staff.

“I appreciate that not everything in life is free, but stuff like [free parking] just makes life a little bit easier,” she said. “I don’t get paid to work at the hospital and it feels like they treat students as free labour.

“Over the course of my nursing degree, I have to work 2,300 hours in order to complete it and I don’t get paid for it – so getting a parking fine is just awful.”

Athena shared a photo of the parking charge notice she received on Monday on Twitter, with the caption: “Just what you love to see after finishing a 13-hour shift, whilst working for the NHS for free (our hospital don’t give student permits).”

Her tweet was shared over 8,000 times, and she was “inundated” with generous offers from people to help pay the fine. Other student nurses also shared parking fines they received while working in hospitals.

“The outreach I’ve received from that tweet has been amazing, really kind-hearted people have contacted me with messages of support and offers to help pay for it,” she said.

“It shows that the public are still in support of students and our situation. It gives me some hope.”

Patricia Marquis, regional director at the Royal College of Nursing, told The Independent: "The public will be outraged at car parks making money on the backs of nursing students who pay hefty tuition fees to be treated as unpaid labour in too many hospitals. If they had any decency, they'd drop this fine."

In September, a petition to make car parking at NHS hospitals free for all NHS staff received nearly 60,000 signatures. Although it fell short of the 100,00 signatures needed to get the issue debated in Parliament, the government responded by saying it would roll out free parking for “those in greatest need” from January 2021.

“We want the NHS to deliver on the government’s commitment of providing free hospital parking for those in greatest need. This means we are rolling out free parking for disabled people, frequent outpatient attenders, parents of children staying overnight and staff working night shift, which will become mandatory in England from January 2021,” said the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).

“The government recognises that it is not possible to provide free parking for everyone but that these groups have a greater need for hospital parking than others.”

But with the UK facing a second wave of coronavirus and a difficult winter ahead, Athena said that free parking would be a way “to show gratitude for your workforce”.

“I don’t know many companies that would treat their workers like this,” she said. “Facing a second wave is daunting and you need emotional resilience - everyone’s levels are depleted.

“Now that the hospitals are getting to full capacity, you just have to brace yourself for what’s to come. But I think we’re in a better position to deal with it now than before.”