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Call for compassion in £50-a-week treatment row

A cash toll on health care which could come into effect next month is being attacked by the Grimsby Telegraph.

Under new health authority proposals, patients from south of the Humber may get some of their care from the north bank – resulting in them having to fork out £2.50 per bridge crossing.

If the plan goes ahead, Grimsby area cancer patients currently getting their radiotherapy in Lincoln could end up having to travel 30 miles to cross the River Humber into Hull, pay the bridge toll, then spend £2.50 on car parking – and that’s before they even get inside the hospital.

The Telegraph is calling on readers to help Axe The Toll On Health by putting pressure on the bridge management authorities to cut the fees for patients.

It wants to rally support by printing coupons and readers have already returned 873 – and only two respondents have said they disagree.

Health reporter Lucy Wood (right) said: “Since the start of the campaign, we have run a story and coupon in nearly every edition.

“Our latest revelation is expected to cause a stir – that families visiting prisoners on the north bank may be entitled to travel subsidies, where patients don’t get anything.

“The Mayor, Cleethorpes MP, leader of the council and cancer charities have also got behind us 100 per cent.”

Coupons and correspondence will be passed on to the Humber Bridge board in an attempt to persuade it to drop the charges.

The Telegraph Comment said: “The plain fact is that people who need treatment to keep them alive will be faced with being forced to fork out £5 for a return crossing of the Humber as well as having to pay petrol and car parking charges when they reach their destination.

“A £10 bill for treatment which is vital is just not on.

“We believe a caring society should show compassion when there is a genuine need for it to do so. Hospital patients do not cross the bridge for fun. For many of them the extra charges are a burden which presents extra stress at a time when they need to worry less.”

But the bridgemaster, Roger Evans, explained that allowing free travel for patients, visitors, charities and so on would cost £280,000 a year – a “significant amount” of the bridge’s takings.

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