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Outrageous: hospitals have the most expensive parking fees in the country
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Zoltán Dézsi L. from ATV conducted a thorough report about the parking fees of hospitals from all over the country. As it turns out, people pay an enormous amount of money to park at hospitals while they are being treated or visiting their sick loved ones.
Journalist Szonja Kuslits previously wrote an article about the issue. At that time, she contacted many major hospitals in the country, inquiring about the parking fees; how the amount is determined, who gets the profit, why these are so ridiculously expensive. To the surprise of no one, she received no answer.
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Dézsi Zoltán from ATV decided to re-open this case and investigate it. He and his crew visited many hospitals in the countryside and in Budapest as well, to check out their parking fees and to try and get some more information about the whole issue.
In Hungary, there is no pre-defined or limited amount state institutions have to comply with in terms of parking fees. It depends on the management of the different institutions how much they charge for parking.
People take advantage of this lack of regulation, to say the least, and they exploit people who have no other choice but pay their prices.
Let us be honest, if one needs to go to the hospital, one goes to the hospital. Many patients are in such poor conditions that they cannot simply take the bus or walk. Using public transportation is, sadly, not an option for everyone.
At the hospitals of Budapest, the average hourly fee for parking is around EUR 1.3 (HUF 400),
which does not seem so bad at first sight, unless one considers that people usually have to spend over 3 hours just to get their results or prescriptions. This way, it is easy to calculate that most people pay at least EUR 4.7 – 6.2 (HUF 1500-2000) for one trip to the hospital. Look at the average salaries in the country and see how much money it is for an average Hungarian family.