Teenager With Rare Blood Disorder Petitions to Slash Expensive Hospital Parking Rates

A 13-year-old boy who has a rare blood disorder has campaigned to cut the expensive hospital parking rates in Sydney after learning that his parents have paid over $10,000 in parking fees.

Gidon Goodman has Gaucher’s disease — a condition that causes fatty deposits to build up in certain organs and bones — and has been in and out of hospital for most of his life.

Now, he has launched a change.org petition after learning that his family has spent over $10,000 on parking fees during his more than ten years of treatment at Sydney Children’s Hospital.

Heis petition is directed towards NSW Premier Mike Baird and Health Minister Jillian Skinner. He claims that unregulated parking affects the most vulnerable in society. He wrote:

“This parking rate appears to be unregulated and costs the most vulnerable in society thousands to receive healthcare that is supposedly “free”.

“The money that is made for the most part goes straight to private companies so the money doesn’t even help the hospital.”

Gidon continued to explain that most hospital car parks were more expensive than Bondi Beach Parking, Domestic Airport parking and most valet services.

“Many families simply can not afford to be late for life saving treatment and can not find time to look for free parking in an extremely populated urban area situated right next to a university,” he concluded.

Gidon, who appeared on Channel 10’s “The Project” on Monday night, hopes that a regulatory agency will be appointed to make sure parking fees are universally affordable in NSW.

“I suspect (the agency) would find that the prices should be much lower for patients and for visitors. With those regulations in place, that would stop a large part of the exploitation of people at hospitals,” he said.

So far, Gidon’s petition has been successful as it has already racked up more than 61,000 signatures. Some supporters even commented how they are fed up with paying as much as $64 per day in parking simply to visit their loved ones or receive treatment.

Another supporter also commented that he would have to choose between seeing his dying newborn son and eating dinner that night.

Source: Dailymail.co.uk