{"id":733341,"date":"2026-08-10T09:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T09:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/733341\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T09:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T09:34:09","slug":"health-bosses-rule-out-airport-style-drop-off-fee-at-oxford-hospitals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/733341\/","title":{"rendered":"Health bosses rule out airport-style drop off fee at Oxford hospitals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n  Online claims stated visitors and patients would soon be charged for dropping off those visiting hospital, similar to those seen at airports across the country.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  A poster on social media site Nextdoor said &#8220;There was a secret meeting amongst our car loving councillors responsible for the congestion charge to start charging you to go to Hospital.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;In the same way the denial of the congestion charge before the County Council elections.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;This time the car has been let out of the bag by one of their own.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;That councillor stated privately it\u2019s all gone too far. Clearly that councillor knows what the implications will be with elections in 2028 for the new Unitary Authority.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img   width=\"100%\" alt=\"The therapy being tested, SB-007, was developed by SpliceBio\"\/>John Radcliffe Hospital (Image: Newsquest)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Most commenters called the idea &#8220;draconian&#8221; and &#8220;not surprising&#8221;.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  But a spokesperson for Oxford University Hospitals said the claim was absolutely not the case and not true at all.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Oxfordshire County Council said the post is misinformation.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  It is unclear if these claims meant a drop off charge within the hospital car park or if it was suggesting the council was considering introducing a congestion charge fine in the roads surround the hospital, like Headington Road and Headley Way.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The current congestion charge operates on Hythe Bridge Street, St Cross Road, Thames Street, St Clements Street, Marston Ferry Road and Holloway Way.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The upcoming <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oxfordmail.co.uk\/li\/traffic.in.Oxford\/?ref=au\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">traffic<\/a> filter trial will operate similarly to the temporary congestion charge, with the filters being at the same six locations and a permit scheme in place.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  This scheme will open after Botley Road reopens, which is currently set for Sunday, September 20.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img   width=\"100%\" alt=\"The family flew from Norwich Airport to Paphos, Cyprus, on June 27\"\/>Most airports today charge for dropping off travellers (Image: Denise Bradley)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The last time parking fees went up for John Radcliffe Hospital was in 2023 when over four hours parking became \u00a38 and it became \u00a315 for stays over six hours.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Overnight parking which was previously free, became \u00a32.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  At the hospital now up to 30 minutes is currently free, but up to an hour is \u00a32.20.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  At the moment NHS hospital do not typically operate drop-off charges, instead hospital drop-offs rely on standard short-stay car parks grace period.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Royal Free Hospital in London currently operates only a 5 minute drop off time, a stark difference to the usual 30 minutes given,\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  A \u00a37 airport charge currently applies at Heathrow airport every time a vehicle enters the terminal drop-off areas.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The airport made headlines when they introduced a \u00a35 charge in November 2021, which was promptly increased to \u00a36 in 2025.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  If drivers enter a second time they will need to pay again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Online claims stated visitors and patients would soon be charged for dropping off those visiting hospital, similar to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":733342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-733341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=733341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/733342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=733341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=733341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=733341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}