Response from Suzanne Rankin in regards my email to her

Suzanne Rankin Reply| Today, 10:21 You Inbox Dear Mrs Williams Thank you for your email addressed to myself and a number of my colleagues at Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals regarding the implementation of parking charges for blue badge holders. As we have reiterated in previous correspondence, and particularly in our response to the published open letter, we absolutely recognise that this is an emotive subject for many people and equally acknowledge the campaign that is being run opposing the new charging structure. However, as we have also made very clear, this is a decision taken by our Board in response to the increasingly difficult financial situation we find ourselves in; it is not one we have made lightly and we both recognise and acknowledge that many people will not agree with this decision. However, ensuring that we are able to protect our central income for direct patient care has to be our key priority. As we have said previously additional funds from car parking charges helps us to maintain and run our car parking facilities without recourse to this central funding. As a hospital Trust we only receive funding/payment for the clinical services that we run for patients. All other costs have to be borne by us so raising additional income where we can helps us to protect those clinical services. As we have explained before any patients, able bodied or otherwise, in receipt of certain benefits or who are deemed to be on very low incomes, will be eligible to reclaim their travel and parking costs. I appreciate and acknowledge that this will not apply to all disabled people but means we will create a more equitable charging structure based on affordability rather than eligibility. Finally, we have made it very clear with our stakeholder groups that this is not a consultation. Our Board have had to make a difficult decision, based on the financial climate we unfortunately find ourselves in, but it is a decision that has been taken. We therefore don’t feel it would be helpful or appropriate at this point to hold a public meeting as we did in 2014. We have engaged with our Disability Group, our Patient Panel, our Car Parking and Travel Group (which includes patient representatives) and with our Governors and – as we have openly stated – although not everyone agreed with the decision, we have held some helpful discussions on how we continue to ensure our hospitals remain accessible for all patients and visitors and that we ensure a smooth implementation of the new charging structure. I have personally responded to several letters from MPs who have written requesting the rationale behind our decision, rather than in direct opposition, and The Trust has received no further correspondence from local politicians to date. I hope this answers the matters you raise and in the spirit of transparency we will also be publishing this response on our website. In the meantime, I would be very happy to arrange to meet with you and a few others to discuss this in more detail face to face. Yours sincerely Suzanne Suzanne Rankin Chief Executive Ashford & St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Guildford Road Chertsey Surrey KT16 0PZ Direct Dial: 01932 722217