Ask a Social Worker at the Hospital if you are in hardship? This is the standard answer from our Health Minister when asked about hospital parking fees. What he fails to understand is that proving you are in hardship is proving you are a low income earner. Being in hardship does not take into account where your finances are at, at the time of your visit. Asking a social worker at Lady Cilento can be like scratching a blackboard. It is not that simple and sadly more can prove hardship after paying exorbitant parking prices. Yesterday a family who drove over 70km to attend an appointment asked if they could access a parking voucher, the family stated they were given terrible looks, told they do not qualify and need to be an inpatient or attending regularly to obtain discount. Was told very abruptly that the charity provides the vouchers not the Govt. Why is it that those attending appointments are expected to pay $30 because appointments are running several hours behind. Some clinic appointments state must be there at 8 am but for some they will not be seen until 11am or later. Thats 3 hrs parking fees because the hospital asked them to check in at 8am. Patients should not be paying the price for the way appointments are allocated or when they are running behind.