'Stealth tax' on cancer patients

Tuesday, 19 July 2005 12:00 AM

Cancer patients are paying a "stealth tax" of £380 a year on average in travel costs for hospital treatment, campaigners claim.

Research by Macmillan Cancer Relief finds this amount to be higher where patients were paying hospital car parking fees of up to £30 a day. Only a quarter of hospitals provide free parking.

The charity is now calling on the government to allow all cancer patients to get help with travel costs. It has also said hospital parking for cancer patients should be free.

A travel grant is currently available to patients on income support but only one in five hospitals were found to be promoting the scheme.

Macmillan said that while the NHS is saving £200 per patient per day as more people are treated as day patients, patients are facing longer journeys of as much as 100 miles a day, since services are becoming increasingly centralised.

The travel demands meant paying for them had become a "stealth tax", Macmillan said.

Peter Cardy, chief executive of Macmillan Cancer Relief, said: "It is outrageous that cancer patients should have the added stress of trying to find the money to travel for their life-saving treatment, as if having cancer isn't stressful enough."

A spokesperson for the NHS Confederation said: "We agree with Macmillan Cancer Relief that patients should be fully informed about their rights to reimbursement for costs.

"However, some NHS hospitals have a very limited supply of car parking and are unable to provide free parking for all patients.

"In the longer term, initiatives to provide more services closer to where patients live - in primary care settings - should ensure that patients' travel costs are reduced and we welcome that trend."

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