GIDON Goodman’s doctors said he wasn’t meant to live past 11.

He’s now aged 13, thanks to regular trips to the Sydney Children’s Hospital where he receives lifesaving treatment for Gaucher’s disease, a rare genetic blood disorder.

The Dover Heights teen has been making the trips every two weeks for the past 10 years. Over that time, his parents have racked up a $10,000 bill. Not for medicine — for parking.

“It’s outrageous,” he said. “$28 for two-and-a-half hours is more than domestic airport parking, more than the city or Bondi Junction. They’ve got a complete monopoly, it’s not regulated at all.”

The Moriah College student has created a Change.org petition calling on hospitals and parking operators around Australia to stop exploiting patients. “I just decided one day, it’s not right, it has to stop,” he said.

The petition argues outrageous parking fees mean the most vulnerable in society are whacked with thousands of dollars in costs to receive supposedly “free” healthcare.

“Many families simply cannot afford to be late for lifesaving treatment and cannot find time to look for free parking in an extremely populated urban area situated right next to a university,” he writes.

“Despite this, parking fees have gone up over the last five years at a ridiculous rate which is forcing families to pay thousands and suffer the consequences.

“Please sign and share this petition to lobby politicians and protest against this so that the parking rate can be reduced and families can once again go to hospital without worrying about the crippling price of parking.”

Mr Goodman has written to his federal and state members, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and NSW Attorney-General Gabrielle Upton, about his petition, which has attracted more than 1500 signatures.

Mr Turnbull’s office responded informing him his letter had been forwarded to NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner, but Ms Upton’s office has yet to respond.

The youngster, who describes himself as “pretty politically active”, said the petition was his idea but his parents fully supported it.

“I want [hospital parking] to be regulated through the state government or through the ACCC,” he said. “Another hope is if it gets enough attention, maybe they will be forced to lower their prices.”

He has to hope, because he will require the treatments for the rest of his life, as well as regular MRI scans and clinic visits.

“Physically it doesn’t really have much of an effect on me because of the treatments, but there isn’t a cure — just an ongoing treatment that wards it off,” he said. “The treatment allows me to live a normal life.”

While most hospitals provide concessional parking arrangements, most are only available for patients in severe financial hardship.

“Because I go fortnightly, there’s absolutely no way to get any sort of concession for it,” Mr Goodman said. “They’re making hundreds of millions of dollars.”

His mother, accountant Karen Goodman, said Gidon had been moved by the hardship experienced by families of his fellow patients after learning parking fees had once again shot up.

“This whole thing wasn’t about us — we can afford to pay for the parking,” she said. “But we sit in the ward and listen to the families of kids with cancer, blood disorders, and people really struggle.

“Gidon was surprised when he did the research and found out the price of parking [at other places]. He found it socially unconscionable that they’re ripping people off who have no choice.”

In a statement, a spokeswoman for Sydney Children’s Hospital said parking was “at a premium” at most hospital sites and the “careful management of parking spaces to balance the needs of patients, visitors, emergency vehicles, on-call clinical staff and other users is an important issue”.

“The car parking at the Randwick Campus of Hospitals, which includes SCH, is under a long-term private contract with Metro Parking,” she said.

“The 25-year parking contact was established in 1997 and runs until 2022. However, Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick believe concessional parking is an important aspect in the car parking fee structure to improve access to hospital sites. Currently, concessional rates are already in place for families at SCH accessing Metro Parking.”

Earlier this year, the Australian Medical Association joined with the Cancer Council in calling for something to be done about the spiralling costs of hospital parking.

News.com.au reported how one Brisbane father was forced to spend more on parking fees than medicines for his severely ill son.

Last year, the Victorian government ordered a review of hospital parking arrangements after a damning Cancer Council report found some patients were forced to spend more than $1100 a year just to receive basic treatment.

In NSW alone, patients, doctors and visitors to the state’s hospitals forked out a record $34 million in parking fees last financial year, according to state budget figures.

AMA vice president Stephen Parnis told news.com.au earlier this year hospital parking “costing a small fortune” was a huge issue not just for patients and their families but even medical professionals.

“Getting to hospital is not easy for many. If they’re old, frail, or in pain, it’s not as if public transport is an option for these people or their families sometimes,” Dr Parnis said.

“We know that hospitals are starved of funding and are looking at any opportunity to improve their revenue flow, and car parking is clearly one of those.”

NSW Health declined to comment.

frank.chung@news.com.au