Hospital visit parking fees could drop after French health minister announcement
Some visitors are currently paying hundreds of euros per month, in what one MP has dubbed a ‘scandal’
“We need to put back support and humanity into our public policies,” said the health minister
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Parking fees for hospital visitors in France could soon drop after the health minister announced his intention to limit parking rates under certain conditions.
Yannick Neuder pledged his intention in front of the Assemblée nationale, and said that at the next conference of CHU (hospital) general directors, he would ask hospitals to ‘make a gesture’ in the form of lower car park fees for visitors.
He said that “under certain conditions, in the case of long illnesses, the need for relatives to be at the patient's bedside will be taken into account”.
This means that people who regularly visit the hospital, for example to see a relative with a long-term condition, may pay less (or in some circumstances, may not pay at all). Currently, some relatives are paying hundreds of euros per month.
“This is part of the support and humanity that we need to put back into our public policies,” said Mr Neuder, reported by 20 Minutes.
Read also: The rising controversy of French hospitals charging for parking
Mr Neuder’s stance is a U-turn on that of his predecessor, François Braun, who said in 2023: “I do not manage hospital parking prices. I agree about this issue, but I am not going to solve the [problem of the] cost of hospital parking immediately.”
Mr Braun said that his “priority” was making sure people were able to “get care”, rather than addressing car parking fees.
‘A scandal’
Mr Neuder was responding to a question on high hospital parking fees from Stéphane Hablot, the MP for Meurthe-et-Moselle (Grand Est), who branded the issue a “scandal”.
Speaking in parliament, he said: “Not only in Nancy, but also in Saint-Étienne, Brest, Cambrai, Le Mans, Bordeaux and Le Havre, anger is growing.
“Is it normal for a young woman who travels 200 kilometres a day to see her mother [in palliative care at Nancy hospital] to pay €300 a month for parking?”
The Nancy CHRU introduced paid-for parking via the private company Q-Park in 2023.
Staggered system not unprecedented
Staggered hospital parking fees already exist in some hospitals. For example, in Lille, the rates change according to the nature of the visit.
As a visitor or for a consultation, parking costs €1 for one hour, up to €5 for four hours
For a treatment lasting more than four hours or in-patient hospitalisation, the rate is €3 euros per day
For recurrent visits to see a patient, the rate is €3 per day or €5 per week over 15 days.
However, many hospitals have struggled to offer affordable parking rates, and are instead handing their car park management over to private operators - including Q-Park, Indigo and Vinci - as a means to save money and direct more funds towards healthcare instead.
The first hospital to charge for its car park was Bordeaux, in 2012.
Other hospitals followed suit, including Caen, Lorient, Epinal, Cambrai, Le Mans, Amiens, Toulouse, Le Havre, Lyon, and Avignon, with many offering 30 minutes or an hour of free parking before imposing hourly fees.
