Regular outpatients and blue badge holders will no longer have to pay parking fees at Warwick Hospital

Blue badge holders and regular outpatients will no longer have to pay parking charges at Warwick Hospital.

The move comes about because of new government regulations, which started in April and May.

While the charges will no longer apply for the named groups, it is advised that blue badge holders present their badges to the hospital to make sure they get the free parking (while the hospital sort out its own system).

Also, the rules for regular outpatients will not start until May 30.

The South Warwickshire Foundation Trust which runs Warwick Hospital, said the following rules now apply:

- For people with disabilities, free parking is available for the duration of their stay.

- For frequent attendees to our outpatient department for a face-to face consultation with a consultant or doctor, charges will be reimbursed. This applies to patients who attend for an appointment three times within a month and for an overall period of three months. This will come into force on May 30.

- For the parents of sick children staying overnight, a car parking voucher machine will be provided on Macgregor ward and Special Care Baby Unit to allow staff to issue free parking tokens between the hours of 7pm and 8am.

In regard to the disability permits, the Trust is working with an external contractor to enable the blue badge holder to scan (via a bar code) their blue badge at any one of the pay on foot machines located in any SWFT public car parks.

The machine will authenticate that the blue badge is valid and in-date and once the holder has inputted their registration number it would allow the holder free parking for the duration of their stay.

A spokesperson for the Trust said: "Looking to the future, we’re exploring the feasibility of developing the software so that once the blue badge has been initially scanned it will in future allow the holder to just input the registration number as the system will retain the fact that the badge is valid.

"The holder would then just need to enter their registration number before exiting the car park. The badge would only need to be scanned when it has been renewed or when there’s been a change of vehicle registration.

"This process will save the holder having to return to their vehicle to obtain their blue badge to then take to the pay on foot machine for validation on every visit."