"my comment is regarding a blood test..."

Many thanks for your feedback and we're glad that you found your experience of Hertford County a good one - we hope that this continues.

Parking on NHS hospitals is a thorny issue and we understand why many people resent paying. The problem for us is that across our four hospitals, on average the Trust spends around £750,000 a year providing car parking facilities. This covers everything from maintenance, repairs and running the car parking service, through to signage, lighting and security.

Since we do not get dedicated funding for providing parking on our hospital sites, we either cover this cost out of budgets intended for patient care or seek to cover our costs through making a charge. Without a pay on exit system being possible, we have to use a pay and display system that works to an average use of our sites.

When we had a lower time band, many people chose that only to find out later on that their stay in hospital was longer than they had anticipated, which led to them becoming very anxious about whether or not they needed to leave to renew their ticket. This caused patients and our staff all sorts of problems, which in turn led to a call for the first time band to be widened to two hours - if you like the exact opposite of your experience. We do, of course, keep the situation under review and may adjust the time bands in future.

In terms of helping you out though, do you need to come to Hertford County for your blood test at all? While some patients do, many can make use of clinics run very regularly in health centres and community hospitals across east Hertfordshire where routine blood tests can be taken and parking may be much less of an issue.

If this applies to you, just check out our website at:

http://www.enherts-tr.nhs.uk/patients-visitors/our-services/blood-tests/