In reply to the rude, ignorant person who wrote last week regarding “health staff have no right to expect free car parking”

Where do I start? Firstly I am an NHS worker and I find your comment extremely rude, offensive and extremely personal to all NHS workers including all, I quote, “overweight NHS workers”. I personally can’t see how this is relevant to parking charges as it’s just plain rude.

I understand that staff need to pay for parking but my complaint and that of many others is the fact of not being able to park in a space that we are paying for. In town car parks you pay once parked in a space, but this does not happen at the hospital. Also a team of parking attendants will be employed and paid wages with our parking fees so I cannot see where the saving will be.

I would say that 95 per cent of the NHS staff are on a low to mid wage and find your remark that NHS workers are “overpaid, workshy, with gold plated pensions and permanently disgruntled” laughable myself and highly offensive.

Yes, NHS workers are overworked at times and occasionally stressed however who isn’t in any job from time to time?

I work for under £7,000 a year part time in a very demanding part of the hospital where I work shifts that cover 24 hours and I work very hard, as do my colleagues, to provide a 24- hours service that serves people such as the writer of this letter and find it remarkable that the writer can personally slate people and working environments that he or she knows nothing about.

I need to use my car as I don’t live on a bus route and usually have children to drop off and pick up. I will pay the parking fees only if I can be guaranteed a space. That is not asking too much is it?

Perhaps instead of slating the NHS staff the writer should come and work a long shift on a weekend where I work, or on a busy ward managing constant admissions, theatre and discharging, or come and have a go at managing the hospital beds.

Let’s hope you don’t need one of those terrible NHS workers to care for you one day.

V Kelly, U Woodford

Shocked at this rant on nurses

The anonymous author of the letter “health staff have no right to expect free car parking” will have incensed a vast number of people in the employ of the NHS. I have never read such sanctimonious and bigoted rubbish, and I am frankly surprised at the Journal for publishing it.

The NHS teaches equality and diversity in all areas of its employment, and structuring the car parking charges in line with earnings seems a more equitable arrangement. We respect people as individuals, and do not judge them by their appearance, or weight.

From a nursing perspective, nurses gain a wealth of job satisfaction from providing an excellent standard of care for their patients – why would they want to change jobs? If something isn’t working there are other options nowadays, and certainly no one “expects the world to be changed for their personal benefit”. The NHS has survived for years on the goodwill of its staff. A great many nurses work on unpaid after their shift has ended and to call nurses permanently disgruntled, overpaid and workshy is beyond belief.

“Gold plated pension” intrigues me. NHS staff pay six per cent of their salary towards their pension, and having received an estimation of my pension, I can assure you it is anything but gold plated.

Public sector pay has been frozen for two years now, which will not only devalue NHS pensions but deflate earnings as inflation rises. Enjoy your private sector pay rise.

Liz Hill, Salisbury

Try working in the health service

What a strange letter from an embittered person who presumably is unsuccessful in business who lashes out at the workers of Odstock hospital who amazingly earn more than he or she does.

The writer also must be the only person on the planet to associate obesity with the issue of parking. Maybe the fat people are at the hospital to get medical help? Firstly, let’s be honest, the hospital needs money. It always does and it always will. The salaries of the majority who work there are comparatively poor, if you discount senior doctors, surgeons, consultants etc.

The reason the management is trying to charge the employees is simple – they think they can get away with it. They are relying on the enormous goodwill of the staff. The deal when people started working there was free parking for staff. This presumably formed part of the employment package and staff are entitled to compensation for the loss of an employment condition.The hospital is too remote to be reached other than by transport. It’s not a question of laziness and it’s sickening that some people have the attitude: “I have a hard time with things so I can’t abide other people getting it any easier”.

In addition, this person thinks that hospital workers are not stressed, overworked etc etc. He or she has obviously never worked in one. Perhaps the writer should give up his or her unsuccessful business with expensive parking and get a job working in the “protected environment of the public sector”, although there will be around 600,000 people coming in the opposite direction, having been made redundant by this government.

Colin Grant, Salisbury