"New car parking fees for cancer patients"

After surgery at Chorley and radiotherapy at Rosemere, Preston I attended my last appointment to see my oncologist to be signed off on 9/01/2019. The wait was almost 2 hrs. Unbeknown to me the pre Christmas policy of free parking permit had been changed. I was advised by reception that I would have to pay full fee - no concession as I would not have any ongoing appointments. I said I would need to draw out money but was advised I could pay by card. I was charged £5.50 for the privilege of the long wait, five minutes with oncologist and signing off, which I and I am sure many recovering cancer patients can ill afford.It appears that minimum payments of £2.50 daily will be the future charge for ongoing cancer treatment, those who cannot afford this will be seeking patient transport to avoid fees, putting more pressure on this service.

At the new pay machine, people waiting to pay behind others were getting angry with payers not using the machine fast enough, as they were trying to avoid extra charges. I let someone go ahead of me for this reason. I then had another person behind who was literally pointing and rushing me through the payment process, fully able to see me putting my debit card code in - unpleasant and not secure.I am disabled but mobile and found the low height of the controls difficult as I have trouble bending and with vision which also added to the pressure I felt under - I assume the height was to cater for wheelchair users ( quite rightly ) but does make it difficult for other types of disability. Machine is located in very small entrance so the queue is in the way of others entering/leaving. I only found out after researching at home that payment can be made online before miidnight the same day - this would avoid the bullying which appears to be happening at the pay point. An unexpected, expensive and upsetting end to what had otherwise been excellent treatment.