Free car parking for some...

One of the frustrations I feel at being a GP is that it seems impossible to do one's job without a car. Home visits are a normal part of the working day and in the more rural setting oop north it is unimaginable to manage without a vehicle.
I often think some practices should invest in a very cheap runaround or maybe some kind of hybrid/electric car. It could live at the practice and the GPs could cycle/walk/get the bus into work and there would still be transport to do the visits. Everyone's a winner.

A minor irritation with visiting hospitals is the need to pay for parking everywhere you go. I do not have a big problem with paying for parking in town centres. I think of it as a bit of an extra tax on car ownership and it rightly encourages me to thick twice about these visits and I get on my bike when I can.

The charge for car parking at hospitals does not fall into this category and has always raised hackles.

Interestingly, Scotland have chosed to abolish charges. While it hardly constitutes a major rift in health provision across the UK and I don't think anyone will be using the standard 'postcode lottery' argument here it does highlight how the management of the NHS is diverging.

Even more interestingly, the Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon has been powerless to influence the situation at PFI hospitals. Jobbing Doctor has had a word about PFIs already today. They may not show up on the public borrowing but we have certainly mortgaged away a huge slice of future NHS spending. Thin end of the wedge anyone?