At my last chemo session a lady was talking about how she was paying $80 in cab fare just to get to each of her hospital visits. That gets one to thinking of the extra financial burdens that are placed on patients and their families and friends. Some of these like loss of wages and uninsured drug costs can be catastrophic.
Because they cannot afford to do otherwise, many people try to continue to work or go without expensive drugs and thereby jeopardize their recoveries. There are other, often less thought of expenses, that can really add up.
Take hospital parking. To illustrate this I pulled together daily maximum rates for the 14 cancer centres in Ontario and show them below sorted most to least expensive.
- Toronto, Sunnybrook -- $23.00
- Toronto, Princess Margaret -- $19.00
- Newmarket -- $17.00
- Oshawa -- $16.00
- Kingston -- $16.00
- Mississauga -- $16.00
- Hamilton -- $15.00
- Barrie -- $15.00
- Ottawa -- $13.00
- London -- $10.50
- Kitchener-Waterloo -- $10.00
- Thunder Bay -- $7.00
- Sudbury -- $6.00
- Windsor -- $3.00
The average is $13.32 per day with Sunnybrook topping the list at an astronomical, just plain mean $23 and Windsor at the bottom with a much more kindly $3. Over a course of treatments this really adds up. Full parking charges, twice a week for six weeks can cost you up to $276 at Sunnybrook on top of the cost of getting your car to the hospital. In addition before treatment started, you probably went to the bank machine a few times to pay for parking while getting diagnostic scans, physician appointments, follow ups, etc. If you are in for a few overnights, I would imagine the higher the rates, the less visitors want to come.
As you can see the higher rates tend to be in the Toronto GTA and larger cities. Many centres will give you directions on how to get there via public transit which does of course avoid the parking charges. There are at least two very serious public transit issues with cancer patients. First treatment often knocks down our immune systems making us highly susceptible to contagious diseases. You have a much larger chance of catching a cold or the flu by adding a trip on a bus or subway to your routine than being in your car.
Second, treatment makes us physically weaker so adding the public transit trip where we could easily wind up standing the whole way can be very draining. A good example is the Toronto subway which can be a noxious place for anyone with physical disabilities. Only 31 of the 69 stops have elevators. Most have escalators but often they only go one way if they are working at all. One trip to Sherbourne station when you have to walk down several long flights of stairs with a wind tunnel effect that wants to take a CFL football player off his feet will demonstrate the the problems quite nicely.
There is another alternative in many areas. The Cancer Society will provide free transportation to and from the centre for the course of your treatments. My experience has shown that it has its flaws but is generally a good system and a donation to the Society will usually cost you a lot less than being gouged by some of the hospital parking rates.
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Just another perspective.
Apparently even doctors can get tickets if they are stuck at the hospital too long.
The problem with Windsor is that the Cancer Centre parking lot is very small & most of the time you end up having to park in the regular parking lot where the fees are higher, so $3 is not the true picture. I'm shocked at how much Sunnybrook parking is & I don't know how I would have afforded to go there when I already had to give up my job & my husband takes time off to take me. My personal opinion is that Cancer patients should be able to claim parking & mileage expenses on their income tax.
Peace.
If the parking fees at the hospitals were reasonable, more people would prefer them rather than walking blocks in the cold, rain or snow. Increasing the hospital revenue and decreasing the irate neighbors.
1. if you have financial difficulty paying for parking, the hospital will waive parking fees. We saw up to 20% of all parkers not pay for their parking due to financial concerns.
2. Weekly/monthly passes: Your post outlined the daily rates - as a regular user of hospital services, you would be able to buy discounted passes for weekly/monthly visits.
3. The 2 largest sources of revenues for hospitals are Tim Hortons (or other food) and parking. When the government caps their remittances to hospitals, there are only a few ways the hospital can make the cash to provide services. The parking revenues are not lining the pockets of any hospital exec - they are going directly into the provision of health services - equipment, nurses, doctors, and hospital materials.
I know that none of these will in any way make you feel any better for parking at a hospital, but if you are in financial hardship you can speak with the customer service agents at the hospital to work it out.
Another serious concern is that Doctors often get their parking paid for. The Ontario government spends millions each year subsidizing doctor parking fees. Should doctors get free parking when they are already well compensated? Is it essential that they get free parking for their jobs?
What's required is a more transparent, less distorted link between consequence and cost so that we're all better informed as to the effect of our actions. That and, in cases such as Mr. Froats, more discretion in where and when we subsidize parking—I agree a hospital merits serious consideration.
Mr. Froats, I'd like you to consider this: every time you park for free know that among those bearing the costs are those too poor to even afford automobiles. That's hardly fair.
I would have participated if there were a choice that said "Parking fee of a nominal $3-$5 is okay".