Julian Knight, Conservative parliamentary candidate for Solihull, feels there is a real head of steam behind his campaign for fairer hospital parking charges after a crunch meeting with Heart of England Trust chairman Les Lawrence.
Mr Knight took the results of his Solihull-wide NHS survey into the meeting and told managers at HEFT of the widespread disquiet amongst local residents over excessive hospital parking charges and the reduction in services at the Solihull hospital site.
"I think HEFT realise that the issue of excessive hospital parking charges won't go away and that something needs to be done in order to ensure there is more information about discounts on offer and vulnerable groups see a reduction in charges."
Julian also laid the people of Solihull's views out for HEFT regarding the worrying rumours about the reduction of key services at Solihull Hospital.
"Put simply, we in Solihull don't want our local hospital transformed into something which merely dresses a few wounds and distributes pain killers. Solihull shouldn’t be served by something that amounts to a cottage hospital. We want Solihull to be a centre of excellence meeting the needs of local people, not changing services seemingly on an annual basis," Mr Knight said.
In a full and frank discussion Mr Knight managed to get key assurances over the future of the hospital and for the Trust to do more over hospital parking:
"There are changes afoot in service provision at Solihull hospital for sure but I have been told that there will be consultation and clarity. Above all HEFT seem to be acknowledging the specialisms that Solihull hospital has at present and looking to nurture those. As for parking charges; I laid it on the line for HEFT they have to up their game, expand discount schemes and ensure that people know about them."