Parking fees a burden for cancer patients, study finds

Cancer care providers and hospitals need to be more aware of the “financial toxicity” that eats away at the bank accounts of patients seeking life-saving care, especially the parking fees that may accompany their hospital visits, a new study found.

And it’s not just patients, say the University of Alberta researchers — their caregivers are affected too.

“Imagine having to pay for parking for 24 weeks,” in addition to often complex treatments, said Mustafa Al Balushi, a final-year radiation oncology resident in Edmonton who led the study.

“It’s one additional headache, one additional concern,” and one that may deter patients who need to visit a cancer care centre every day for the course of their treatment and pay for parking, he said.

The purpose of the study, released Wednesday, was to evaluate cancer centre parking fees in Western Canada and to find any correlation between the daily cost of parking and city-specific characteristics like transit scores and median household income.

In February and March, Al Balushi and his team of researchers obtained parking information for 115 regional and community cancer centres in British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, along with cancer centre transit scores, median city household income and city-specific cost-of-living scores.

The study found cities with better public transportation have less free parking for patients, with the opposite being true for cities with poor public transportation systems. The study also found the median hourly parking fee across all provinces was $2, whereas the median daily cost of parking was $9.50.

What may appear to be a small cost can turn into a significant burden, said Al Balushi.

Transportation to and from cancer treatments has been one of the highest out-of-pocket costs for patients and their families for quite some time, especially for those who live further away from treatment centres or those who can’t rely on public transportation.

“There’s not a lot of awareness about financial toxicity in cancer care,” said Al Balushi. But it’s an important topic from the patient’s perspective, especially as these “hidden,” non-medical costs like parking can total around $3.18 billion annually across Canada for newly diagnosed cancer patients and their families.

Other research cited in the study found financial burdens can affect patient care, with some patients indicating they may be less willing to pay for expenses when faced with unexpected costs associated with treatment.

While the study focuses on Western Canada, the rest of the country isn’t immune to the problem, Al Balushi said.

In 2016, Ontario’s then-health minister announced a directive to help reduce parking costs in hospital-owned lots, with those that charge more than $10 a day for parking required to offer patients, their families and visitors discounted passes at 50 per cent off the daily maximum rate.

At the time, the minister said hospitals in the province earn about $100 million a year from parking. And in 2006, the highest out-ofpocket cost associated with cancer treatment in Ontario was found to be related to parking fees, a study found.

Cancer treatment patients aside, in 2020, two major hospitals in Toronto were among the most likely places for drivers to be hit with a parking ticket, with North York General Hospital being the single address where the most tickets were handed out and Sunnybrook hospital’s Bayview Campus following closely behind.

If universal free parking isn’t an option, Al Balushi suggests using screening tools to detect patients and families who are at risk of experiencing financial toxicity, and providing them with vouchers, discounted or free parking.

“Ideally, it would be free parking.”