As a band 3, my take-home pay at the end of each month is around £1,700. I live in a one-bedroom flat with my partner who is a mechanic and our two children; we don’t qualify for benefits. I pay nearly £50 a month to park in the hospital car park run by Q-Park, a profit-making private company with a contact to run the car park at Musgrove until 2031. Q-Park has raised the cost of parking at the hospital around 20% in two years. Nursing salaries have risen just 5%. Transport to work including a parking permit cost me around 20% of my monthly salary.
What shocks many is that I pay the same for a parking permit on site as someone earning more than double my pay. The cost-of-living crisis affects everyone but it affects some of us more than others.
As our family struggle to make ends meet, we max out our credit to keep afloat every month and we make regular use of a local food bank and I know I am not the only person working in the trust who relies on this vital community charity. It doesn’t seem right that families working full time can’t afford the basics at times.
I’m passionate about my work. It maddens me that the reason I’m not working to my potential, or not working more, is due to the costs of parking and transport – it’s really demoralising. If parking and transport wasn’t an issue, I would do more shifts.
I am unable to take on additional twilight and late shifts at the hospital due to difficulties finding a space to park despite paying for a permit. I live 22 miles away from the hospital and there are no suitable transport alternatives. Somerset is an incredibly rural county with poor public transport and there are no other parking options in the vicinity of the hospital. Currently there are limited spaces available in the local residential area but NHS staff parking in these places has caused friction with residents and the council are currently proposing to introduce resident only parking in the area which will further reduce parking options.
I love nursing and am studying in my spare time to gain further nursing qualifications. I am committed to the profession and my patients but it comes at such a cost.
I’ve worked in critical care for five years. While I do think that working in an acute setting offers a far worse work/life balance because of the long days, meaning I can’t do school runs and barely see my family on work days, I don’t want to move to community nursing. I’ve found my niche. I do, however, want to be able to afford to get to work.
There are 42,000 nursing vacancies across England - while there are many complex reasons for this, I believe that access to affordable transport to work is an important issue, certainly for those of us living and working in very rural areas.
I have been working with colleagues and the RCN in our campaign across the trust to secure better transport to work and car parking options for RCN members. Negotiations open with Somerset NHS Foundation Trust in the coming weeks to discuss campaign demands and we are determined to have the voice of nursing heard to make change.
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What shocks many is that I pay the same for a parking permit on site as someone earning more than double my pay. The cost-of-living crisis affects everyone but it affects some of us more than others.
As our family struggle to make ends meet, we max out our credit to keep afloat every month and we make regular use of a local food bank and I know I am not the only person working in the trust who relies on this vital community charity. It doesn’t seem right that families working full time can’t afford the basics at times.
I’m passionate about my work. It maddens me that the reason I’m not working to my potential, or not working more, is due to the costs of parking and transport – it’s really demoralising. If parking and transport wasn’t an issue, I would do more shifts.
I am unable to take on additional twilight and late shifts at the hospital due to difficulties finding a space to park despite paying for a permit. I live 22 miles away from the hospital and there are no suitable transport alternatives. Somerset is an incredibly rural county with poor public transport and there are no other parking options in the vicinity of the hospital. Currently there are limited spaces available in the local residential area but NHS staff parking in these places has caused friction with residents and the council are currently proposing to introduce resident only parking in the area which will further reduce parking options.
I love nursing and am studying in my spare time to gain further nursing qualifications. I am committed to the profession and my patients but it comes at such a cost.
I’ve worked in critical care for five years. While I do think that working in an acute setting offers a far worse work/life balance because of the long days, meaning I can’t do school runs and barely see my family on work days, I don’t want to move to community nursing. I’ve found my niche. I do, however, want to be able to afford to get to work.
There are 42,000 nursing vacancies across England - while there are many complex reasons for this, I believe that access to affordable transport to work is an important issue, certainly for those of us living and working in very rural areas.
I have been working with colleagues and the RCN in our campaign across the trust to secure better transport to work and car parking options for RCN members. Negotiations open with Somerset NHS Foundation Trust in the coming weeks to discuss campaign demands and we are determined to have the voice of nursing heard to make change.
You can support us by.
