Victory over the parking cowboys: Hospitals ordered to ban bullies and give the seriously ill free parking. Daily Mail

  Jeremy Hunt to set out new strict rules blocking huge fines in car parks

  Cancer sufferers and patients whose treatment overran were ripped off

  Health trusts now responsible for private firms that run 3/4 of the car parks 

Hospitals must offer free or cut-price parking to the seriously ill, the Health Secretary will announce today.

Setting out strict new rules, Jeremy Hunt will say cowboy parking operators can no longer be allowed to impose huge fines for trivial infringements.

His intervention is a major victory for the Daily Mail’s campaign to protect vulnerable patients. 

The outrageous behaviour of some parking bullies has sparked a mass of complaints. 

Cancer sufferers and patients whose treatment has over-run are among those who have been ripped off.

‘Patients and families shouldn’t have to deal with the added stress of unfair parking charges,’ Mr Hunt will say.

‘These clear ground rules set out our expectations, and will help the public hold the NHS to account for unfair charges or practices.’

The guidance to health trusts makes clear they will be responsible for the actions of the private firms that run more than three quarters of hospital car parks.

They will have to act against rogue contractors and not sign contracts ‘on any basis that incentivises fines’.

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Hospitals send parking bully boys to hound sick and grieving: NHS spends your cash on 'dodgy' debt collectors Daily Mail

  NHS Trusts are employing bogus lawyers to threaten vulnerable patients

  Patients taken to courts over £60 tickets issued while receiving treatment

  Trusts are using bailiffs to go after those who do not pay exorbitant 'fines'

  Parents issued a £50 ticket while at hospital to say goodbyes to dying son 

  Hospital refused to apologise and instructed solicitors to chase payment

Hospitals are spending hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money to force patients to court over car parking tickets.

NHS Trusts are employing ‘unfit’ debt collectors and bogus lawyers to threaten vulnerable patients and their families and make them pay up.

In some cases, patients have been dragged through the courts over £60 tickets issued while they received treatment.

Documents seen by the Mail show Trusts across the country are using bailiffs and legal firms to go after those who do not agree to pay exorbitant car parking ‘fines’.

Elderly parents Robert and Josephine Taylor were issued a £50 ticket while at hospital to say final goodbyes to their son Stephen, who was dying of pneumonia. 

They had accidentally parked in the wrong bay but the hospital refused to apologise and instructed solicitors to chase the payment, threatening court action.

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See the previous part of this series

DVLA rakes in millions colluding with cowboys: Nearly 100 firms trying to buy drivers' details, official figures show

NEIL HERRON: We saw off the rogue clampers. Now let's purge the parking ticket pirates

Why do Hospitals feel the need to charge ridiculous car parking charges ?, it’s a tax on the ill and their visitors, and must be stopped