Ontario hospitals have been ordered by the provincial government to freeze their parking fees and offer discounts for longer-term users. This was a campaign promise made by Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne in 2014, and Health Minister Eric Hoskins who announced these new restrictions at Women’s College Hospital on Jan. 18, 2016.
He told reporters in a news conference, “Parking fees should not be a barrier to access in health care. When patients are surrounded by loved ones, they get better, faster.” This directive means that hospitals are not able to raise their parking rates for the next three years, at which time they will be allowed to raise them only by the rate of inflation. The freeze on current parking rates is effective immediately. It applies to parking lots and garages that charge more than $10 per day, and requires that as of Oct. 1, 2016, hospitals offer five, 10 and 30-day parking passes that are 50 per cent cheaper than the daily rate.
Hospitals will also be required to make these passes transferable between patients and caregivers, allow users to enter and exit the parking lot multiple times without additional charges, and extend parking privileges for one year from the date of purchase.
There are a few hospitals in Ontario who do not own their parking lots, including the Hospital for Sick Children, Baycrest, and the William Osler Health System, which means that the new directive will not be applicable to these facilities. They will, however, be asked to give breaks on parking rates.
“When you have a loved one who has been sick and in hospital for a lengthy stay you have many things that you’re already worried about. One of those things should not be how you’re going to afford hospital parking,” Hoskins told reporters.
The expense of parking rates at hospitals has been an issue for Canadians for years, and a CBC Marketplace episode from 2013 covered this issue in depth. According to the documentary, more than half of Canadians say that hospital parking fees affect how often and for how long they are able to visit a hospital, including visits to a loved one.
According to Hoskins, Ontario hospitals earn approximately $100 million per year in profits, pulled from the $172 million per year paid in parking fees.
The Ontario Hospital Association represents the 150 hospitals in the province. Anthony Dale, chief executive of the association, acknowledged that hospital parking is a challenge for many families, but also stated that the government had previously encouraged hospitals to help cover the rising costs of delivering health care by generating their own revenue, according to the Toronto Star.
Dale criticized the provincial government’s decision, saying, “After four years without an increase in base operating funding, hospitals are now at a turning point.”
He added, “Revenue generated from parking fees is always used for patient care, towards the purchase of capital equipment and projects, infrastructure, clinical research, and day-to-day operations such as facility maintenance. The decision to cut revenues could not come at a worse time.”
Hoskins addressed the loss of revenue, stating, “This will obviously reduce that net profit, but it varies pretty significantly from hospital to hospital, and at the end of the day it is a tiny, tiny portion of any individual hospital’s budget.”
While Dale called for transitional funding to help hospitals adjust to the sudden decrease in revenues, Hoskins did not offer any additional funding at this time.
According to CBC News, the government estimates that 900,000 people will benefit from discounted parking rates per year.