So, here we are again…

On 26 March 2020, after 415,000 of us called for Matt Hancock to stop charging NHS staff to park at their place of work, the Secretary of State for Health did just that.

Mr. Hancock agreed that it was right for NHS workers to be able to focus on their work, on saving lives, relieving suffering and getting the diagnosis right; rather than on whether they had paid the correct fee to park for the length of their shift or whether they could make ends meet financially at the end of the month after parking fees had been deducted from their salary.

It has been reported that the Secretary of State is now planning to reverse that decision and implement a new tax on NHS hospital workers for simply using the car park at their place of work.

This is a direct plea to the Secretary of state for Health.

Please do not impose the proposed  “Hancock Tax” on NHS staff.

Dear Mr. Hancock, you agreed that it was wrong to charge NHS staff to go to work in March when lives needed to be saved, but lives need to be saved every day. We are your National Health Service. That’s what we do.

Now is not the time for you to force your NHS workers out onto public transport. Sitting on a bus next to someone who's spent all day clearing up sputum or nursing patients with COVID-19 is obviously an avoidable risk.

In fact, there will never be a good time to fill this funding gap by bleeding your own team dry. That is your predecessor’s legacy, not yours.

If a hospital cannot afford hand sanitizer or disinfectant unless it charges its cleaners to park at work, then that hospital clearly needs your help. Their funding gap needs addressing, but not by considering your own workforce as a financial resource to be exploited like this. Charging staff to park at their place of work is not your only option, it's not fair and it's simply wrong. 

As a GP I don't pay to park at work, nor do I charge any of my staff to park at work. We manage our accounts in better ways. As an MP, you do not pay to park at work either, even though Parliament could really use the cash. Asking you to fill that funding void personally, would be wrong.

Over 760,000 of us have now signed this petition. I am not out of touch with the public.

Please, take the extraordinary step of thanking your NHS workforce for what they have done for this country and for you, with a lasting gesture of goodwill.

May I propose something amounting to a “Hancock Medal of Service”, a symbolic gesture of official thanks that those involved can pass on to their loved ones?

If you can’t do that, then the very least you can do is NOT thank them, with a pay cut in the form of the  “Hancock Tax” - a deduction from their salary, imposed by you, simply for going to work.

In the NHS, we spend every day of every year desperately trying to do the right thing. Sometimes that’s hard and sometimes it takes courage. You are part of our team. Please join us and do the right thing.

To those people reading this, if you would like to encourage Mr. Hancock to “do the right thing” and abolish his plans for a ‘Hancock Tax’ on NHS Staff, please let him know by signing this petition.

Best wishes and please keep safe,

Dr Anthony Gallagher