This morning on Radio 4, the issue of parking at NHS hospitals was discussed following the news that some NHS trusts in England are making more than three million pounds a year from charging patients and their visitors to park at hospitals. As part of the piece a lady called Elizabeth McAnulty who is one of the Trustees of The Patients’ Association was interviewed. She explained how important it is for the carers and relatives of sick patients not to be used to fund some of the private companies that run the car parks. This is an issue that will resonate with anyone who has had to visit a patient undergoing acute care. Often it is not the cost of each visit, but the relentless pressure to pay for parking often 3 or 4 times a day, for days on end. Some Intensive Care units do offer vouchers for vistors of critically ill patients, but the whole approach deserves support from the Government. However as the quietly spoken Ms McAnulty explained, it was the Government, in the form of Philip Davies, MP for Shipley who talked out a proposal by a backbench MP to protect carers of patients from such costs. It was a very effective comment and one can only hope that some of the Conservative MPs and Ministers were left feeling embarrassed. Unfortunately their embarrassment or not, what we need from them is a complete climbdown, an end of the use of filibusters and a proper debate on parking on NHS property. If like me you oppose the use of filibusters, please consider signing this petition to get the Government to debate their use. It is interesting that both the Express and Mirror have both picked up on the issue of NHS Parking today. Perhaps they will have the capacity to get through to unfeeling idiots like Philip Davies who ironically used to work for Asda that don’t charge for parking in their car parks!