Explain why people believe England’s hospitals should all have universal free parking.Write an argumentative essay that responds to the argument(s) in the essay. In your essay, you must devote a paragraph to summarizing the essay, clearly identifying its main argument, devote at least one paragraph to analysing the rhetoric used in the essay, and devote at least one paragraph to responding to the essay directly. Please include citations to the paragraph numbers of the test essay where needed. Avoid using any other resources for this essay. If you do use other resources, make sure you include proper citations and full bibliographic information for what you use: include a bibliography. You do not need to include a bibliography if the only resource you are using is the test essay. The Daily Mirror [a British tabloid newspaper], backed by, among others, trade unions and Jeremy Corbyn—for whom it is official Labour policy— seeks the abolition of all parking charges at National Health Service (NHS) hospitals in England, for patients, visitors, and staff. The proposal is generally popular and billed as an obvious and fair reform, which would benefit those most in need. Unfortunately, it’s a lot more complicated than that. 2 The first point to stress is that I’m not arguing against reforms to the way hospital parking is currently administered and charged. As is regularly documented, too many systems are unwieldy and over-complex, with many only permitting cash payments or forcing visitors to pay in advance when they might have little idea how long they will stay. Charges can sometimes also seem unreasonably high, and there could be an argument for imposing a cap or perhaps systems whereby regular visitors such as relatives of long-term patients could avoid the fees racking up. But opening up all NHS hospital car parks to free parking at any time, for any duration, to anyone who works there or has reason to visit? That’s a different matter altogether. 3 The first error is that it won’t necessarily make parking any easier, just hard in a different way. There are something close to 600 000 staff members at hospitals in England and about 40 000 inpatient admissions a day. That’s a lot of people seeking a free resource. In Scotland, patients’ associations have complained that car parks at many hospitals, made free in 2008, are so permanently full that some people have had to leave their vehicle a fifteen-minute walk away, thereby missing appointments. In Wales, which also has free parking, one hospital had to build a new multi-storey car park and employ an external contractor to enforce rules. Without fees to cover the costs, this is money that could otherwise be spent on patient care. 4 This is a vital point. Parking is never free: parking without a charge is merely a subsidy to the motorist, and it can be a significant one. Donald Shoup, a US economist with a long-standing fascination with parking, has calculated that in twelve US cities the average construction cost for an above-ground parking space is about £18 000, several times the average net worth of an African-American family. 5 This is the other key point: free parking is fundamentally regressive, a subsidy to people who tend to be richer than average. Many politicians see the car as the default travel choice for everyone, and of course if you’re outside a town or city, often dreadful public transportation means a motor vehicle might be your only means of getting to the nearest hospital. But this ignores the fact that the poorer you are, the less likely you are to drive. Government statistics show that in the lowest income quintile, 44% of English households have no access to a car, with about a third of the second-lowest band facing the same situation. In the top income quintile, just 12% are car-less, with about half owning two or more. 6 It is, therefore, better-off patients and visitors who are more likely to take advantage of free hospital parking, rather than use public transportation or walk, cycle, or take an expensive cab. It’s the same for staff. It thus seems odd for The Daily Mirror to argue so vehemently in favour of such a subsidy rather than, for example, campaigning for better public transportation to hospitals or safe cycling and walking routes, changes which would bring benefits, however poor you are. 7 The final reason this is a misplaced crusade is ever more simple still. A very large number of people are in hospital in the first place, requiring people to treat and visit them, because they lead inactive lives—a problem linked very closely to over-reliance on the car. It’s hard to over-stress the significance of this public health catastrophe, which many experts predict will eventually bankrupt the NHS. An estimated 85 000 people in England and Wales die early every year because of sedentary living, with hundreds of thousands more needing treatment for ailments associated with such lifestyles, such as type-two diabetes, cardiovascular disease and many cancers. The statistics for inactivity can shock. One study from August found that 41% of middle-aged English people fail to walk for ten minutes or more continuously, every month. This isn’t to argue that nurses on a night shift at a rural hospital, let alone ill patients, should be forced to walk or cycle to the wards. But it does seem perverse to specifically incentivise inactive travel when other options might be there, not to mention placing even more demands on the NHS through factors connected to driving, such as smog and crashes. 8 Parking is a strange subject, at once arousing hugely passionate feelings in many people, and yet rarely understood properly. Andrew Gilligan, the journalist who was formerly London’s commissioner for cycling, once described it as “the third rail of politics—if you touch it, you die.” I understand why people believe England’s hospitals should all have universal free parking. I also see why The Daily Mirror and Corbyn would see it as a good cause. But the more you look into it, the worse an idea it seems.
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