A Nova Scotia health advocate says it's time all Maritime hospitals follow Prince Edward Island's example and eliminate parking fees at facilities.

P.E.I. stopped charging people this month, hoping it will encourage more people to visit their loved ones in hospital.

"One of the cornerstones of Canada's public health care system is the fact that you should be able to access it equally regardless of where you live or how much money is in your pocket," Chris Parsons, provincial coordinator for the Nova Scotia Health Coalition, told CBC's Maritime Connection call-in radio show on Sunday.

"It's a burden that we think is really unfair to put on families."

At the QEII Health Sciences Centre, the daily parking maximum is $14.50, with special rates for families of some long-term patients and outpatients with long-term treatment schedules.

Demand for free hospital parking high across Canada

There's great demand across the country to eliminate parking fees at hospitals entirely.

Parents of patients at Sick Kids hospital in Toronto started a petition demanding lower rates a few years ago, and 1,000 people signed on.

When Karen Cantley of St. Margarets Bay, N.S., needed to go to the hospital, she didn't imagine one of her biggest frustrations would be with paying for parking.

"There was no where to go. I was stuck in a hospital on a table for hours and when I came out — guess what — you've been ticketed," she said.

In Nova Scotia, the health authority said parking fees contribute nearly $10 million a year to health care services.

In New Brunswick, the Horizon Health Network recently increased parking costs at central and southern parts of the province where it operates hospitals and health centres. It said parking fees are important to pay for lot maintenance.

'Real human cost'

Parsons doesn't buy those explanations.

"There's a real human cost here. There's the cost of people who don't go to the hospital because they simply can't afford it. And they're going to wait until things get much much worse," he said.



P.E.I. Health Minister Robert Henderson said that province will track parking numbers monthly, to make sure people are using the new system properly, and not just taking advantage of free parking.



"It may be free, but you may be less able to find a space. So those are the things that we're going to be monitoring," he said.