Are you paying for your parking space to receive treatment? A reality for a growing number of patients. More and more public hospitals are forcing users to pay for parking to increase their income.
“Profit from the misery of the people”
This is the case of the Pellegrin hospital in Bordeaux, in the Gironde. For two months, the parking lot of the establishment has become paid. Jean-Luc and Michèle have to take their daughter there regularly for health reasons. The account is salty in the long run, having to pay the couple “15 euros a day.”
“I find it unacceptable,” denounces Michèle into the BFMTV microphone.
Same speech with another patient who regrets having to pay between 5 and 7 euros for one or two hours of parking. “It’s indecent… He’s really taking advantage of people’s misery,” she said.
Hospitals run out of money
The phenomenon is not isolated. A growing number of public hospitals are choosing, for lack of money, to charge their patients, according to an economist.
“It is a rather risky bet and quite a loser for public hospitals because the income generated is not very significant,” however, believes Frédéric Bizard, a professor at the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris (ESCP) and an economist specializing in health.
When asked about this on the set of BFMTV-RMC, Health Minister François Braun said he was aware of the problem but was in touch regarding possible solutions.
“I’m not going to solve the problem of the cost of hospital parking lots. I think our health system has many other difficulties,” he says.
The Pellegrin hospital in Bordeaux explains to BFMTV that it has made the decision to charge for parking to finance the construction of parking spaces, after the expansion of the establishment, equipped with new services.
Source: BFM TV
