"35 euros for a week is expensive": from Cambrai to Saint-Etienne, via Nancy, patients and their loved ones are upset that hospital parking has become chargeable, even though the Minister of Health has promised to do something about it.
Stéphanie Ricq, a 39-year-old woman from Cambrai who has just paid her fare, is depressed: "2.70 for an hour that I've been here..." This farm worker comes "to get tests done quite often" and would like "it to be a little cheaper anyway," she explains, accompanied by her teenager. "I'm a single mother, so it's a bit hard."
The 300-space car park, recently built with an investment of five million euros, has been managed by Indigo since 2022.
The private operator, which financed the structure, operates it under a 35-year contract, specifies the group which manages the parking lots of around twenty hospitals in France.
Joël Trumeu, a 55-year-old town hall employee who had to come in every day, paid "35 euros for a week, that's expensive." He regrets that "there is no other solution": in the surrounding area, he risks a ticket.
Few users have followed the statements of Minister Yannick Neuder, who promised on February 12, before the National Assembly, to intervene to reduce certain parking fees.
The minister wants to ask the general directors of university hospitals meeting on March 6 "that under certain conditions, for long-term illnesses, these costs be covered."
In Nancy, but also "in Saint-Étienne, Brest, Cambrai, Le Mans, Bordeaux, Le Havre, anger is brewing," declared Socialist Party MP Stéphane Hablot, citing the example of a young woman "who travels 200 kilometers a day to see her mother" in palliative care at the Nancy hospital and "pays 300 euros a month for parking."
A recurring source of tension across France, hospital parking concessions to private operators have increased in recent years, as hospitals under severe financial pressure seek to focus their investments on their healthcare activities.
– “We have no other solution” –
Contacted by AFP, the management of the Cambrai Hospital Center was not available to indicate whether the hospital benefits from a portion of the revenue.
A city hall spokesperson explained that the establishment preferred to "invest in equipment, such as a scanner" rather than building a car park.
After the first 15 minutes, you have to pay €2 per hour. Half a day can cost €9, and 24 hours can cost €11.
Among the users lining up at the checkout, Cécile Candelier, 33, a bank employee, said she understood the hospital's decision. "Obviously, we preferred free parking," but "everything is becoming chargeable, so I don't mind paying for parking."
In France, several operators occupy this market including Indigo, Effia, and Q-Park.
Pointed out by a member of parliament in 2023, the Nancy University Hospital car park has since reduced its rates to 4.70 euros for 3 hours.
In Saint-Etienne, where parking management was entrusted this summer to Effia, a subsidiary of Keolis which says it manages around twenty hospital parking lots, there is the same grumbling.
"Reactions of discontent are multiplying," says Cyril Vidal, CGT general secretary of the Saint-Étienne University Hospital. "Fees, which were moderate before the switch to private ownership, have since increased significantly," and the free admission time for patients and visitors "has gone from two hours to half an hour."
Guillaume Pellet, a sixty-year-old from Orléans who spends one week a month in Saint-Etienne to visit his 99-year-old mother in the long-term care unit, has resorted to coming to the hospital by tram. He regrets that registered visitors "can no longer benefit from an exemption like before."
A "particularly shameful" situation, says François Berre, who has been coming to visit his mother there for three years and has launched a petition on the subject.
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