NHS Tayside has shrugged off the threat of a legal challenge to the practice of NHS boards charging disabled people the same as able-bodied people for parking at hospitals.
A leading disability rights lawyer said hospitals could be in breach of the law, after a legal challenge to a hospital trust’s disabled parking charges was launched.
Chris Fry, managing partner at Unity Law in England, said: ”Treating somebody less favourably as a result of their disability amounts to a breach of the Equality Act.
”Inevitably, it will cost someone more to park because of their disability and that must be clearly wrong.”
However, NHS Tayside and Vinci Park, which operates the car park at Ninewells Hospital, have a mobility scheme whereby disabled people have increased access to hospital services.
The company introduced the payment policy five years ago as a deterrent to able-bodied drivers abusing free disabled bays.
NHS Tayside head of site/support services Mark Scholes said: ”The hospital mobility scheme at Ninewells, which was launched in 2007 as the first of its kind in the UK, provides mobility scooters and wheelchairs for use by disabled drivers attending hospital for outpatient appointments and is funded out of the additional income arising from parking charges for disabled drivers.
”Free parking is provided for patients that are required to attend on a regular and routine basis for treatment; for example, renal patients and cancer patients. We also provide free compassionate parking permits to certain parents and relatives of children who are long-term hospital patients.”
Mr Fry had argued that disabled patients often spent longer at hospital appointments due to their disability and says the system is unfair.
The Ninewells Mobility Parking Scheme operates from a purpose-designed office on the ground floor of car park seven.
There are 10 scooters and 10 wheelchairs available via the scheme, which is used by between 20 and 25-plus users a day.
A resident in Medway has begun legal action against Medway NHS Foundation Trust, after it introduced fees for blue badge holders in July.