Arguing for free parking at the QEH

Health P.E.I. should at least consider eliminating parking fees at the province's largest acute-care hospital

Health P.E.I. apparently has no plans to eliminate the parking fees at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, but it should at least consider it. It should also look into policy inconsistencies that exist in the province and make some changes that would make those policies fairer for all Islanders.

Patients and visitors at the QEH have been paying for parking ever since the early 1990s, when it was deemed by the regional health authority at the time to be a reasonable source of hospital revenue. The QEH isn't the only hospital that charges for parking - it's a common practice across the country - but occasionally it has been challenged by those who say it unfairly preys on sick people and their loved ones.

Most recently in this province, Conservative MLA Jim Aylward criticized the policy at the QEH, drawing attention to the fact no such parking fees are in place at any other hospital in the province.

As well, national attention was drawn to the practice recently after an editorial in the Canadian Medical Association Journal called parking fees at a Vancouver area hospital a form of user fee and, as such, a violation of the Canada Health Act. The writer, neurosurgeon Rajendra Kale, says patients have excused themselves from complex discussions about medical procedures just to feed a meter; others with chronic illnesses requiring frequent hospital trips often can't afford the parking fees.

The stock answer from most administrations where parking fees are in place is that they're a form of revenue in these days of costly health care. That appeared to be the view of Health P.E.I. officials when challenged on the issue. "We can't remove a revenue source unless we find one that's an appropriate replacement, and we haven't found one of those yet," Denise Lewis Fleming, executive director of financial services for Health P.E.I., said in an interview.

At a time when health-care costs are rising, all provinces and all health-care facilities struggle to operate efficiently and effectively. There's no doubt that as Canada's health ministers continue to negotiate a new health accord to replace the one that expires in 2014, the escalation of costs will dominate the discussions. So in light of the daunting challenges facing health administrators, is a parking fee really that unfair? Obviously in the view of the Vancouver-area doctor who sees the impact on some patients, it is.

Health P.E.I. should at least consider eliminating parking fees at the QEH. The regional health authority that implemented them no longer exists. How fair is it that patients and visitors to the Prince County Hospital in Summerside park for free, but those who must go to the QEH cannot? The paid parking policy at the QEH is clearly inconsistent with the practice elsewhere in the province.

As well, let's not overlook the fact that while the parking fee generates revenue, the collecting of that fee is a cost in itself when the toll booths and the commissionaires required to collect the fee are considered.

Here's an idea worth considering: if allowing people to park free at the QEH would amount to a loss of revenue for the government coffers, why not recover that revenue by charging for parking at other government locations where visitors and staff currently don't pay? It may not be popular, but on balance, it would be fairer. And it wouldn't be placing that extra burden on sick people or their visitors.