Concessionary Travel For Parents Visiting Sick Children

EDM number 800 in 1989-90, proposed by Keith Vaz on 27/03/1990.

That this House congratulates Dr Una MacFadyen, the Consultant Paediatrician at the Royal Infirmary in Leicester, and other paediatricians on their campaign to highlight the severe financial difficulties faced by parents visiting acutely ill children in hospital; notes that there is now a widespread acceptance that the presence of parents is vitally important to the wellbeing of a child in hospital, a view confirmed by the recommendations of the National Association for the Welfare of Children in Hospital, which stated that parents should be encouraged and helped to be with their children in hospital; condemns the recent changes which have meant that the reimbursement of travel costs to parents is now severely restricted; and calls on the Secretary of State for Health and interested organisations to draw up proposals to provide for concessionary travel for parents either visiting sick children in hospital or accompanying them to outpatient appointments.

This motion has been signed by a total of 49 MPs.