‘Disillusioned’ trainee GP given parking fines after night shifts overran
Unions hit out at ‘deplorable’ treatment of medical workers
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Your support makes all the difference.A junior doctor who was ordered to pay £200 in hospital parking fines after two of his night shifts briefly overran said it is no wonder that NHS staff feel “disillusioned” and “underappreciated”.
Malinga Ratwatte received the penalty notices for being less than 10 minutes late to return to his car after working 12.5-hour shifts.
The trainee GP, who works in north London, said he paid for out-of-hours parking until 8.30am, but important handover meetings kept him at work over this allotted time.
“How I am expected to teleport from a critical meeting about patient care to the car park is beyond me,” he said earlier this week.
The NHS worker added that “predatory” parking fines were one reason he and his colleagues were “so disillusioned” by the current system. Understaffing and pay erosion were also to blame, he said.
Mr Ratwatte later told Sky News that the fines had left him feeling “very underappreciated”.
Although his fines are being rescinded with the help of his hospital trust’s CEO, he stressed that many other doctors still face the same problem.
For this reason, he has called on the government to introduce free NHS parking, saying it is “the least” ministers can do for a workforce that has been overstretched during the pandemic.
Unions have backed this call, with Dr Mike Kemp, the co-chair of the British Medical Association (BMA) telling Metro that the government should offer free parking as a “small recognition” of medical staff’s dedication to their patients.
“It is utterly deplorable that NHS staff, who have given so much to protect us during this pandemic – and in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis no less – should be penalised with expensive parking charges as they provide essential care to patients,” he said.
The comments come as Labour attacked the Conservatives’ NHS record, accusing successive Tory governments of leaving its provision “wanting and inadequate”.
At PMQs on Wednesday, Labour leader Keir Starmer suggested Boris Johnson was “utterly unable” to improve the health service.
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