PIERS Morgan has called on the Government to make free parking for NHS staff permanent after charges were lifted for health care heroes during the coronavirus crisis.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced NHS workers will have their parking paid for outside hospitals and local councils will also provide them with free street parking.
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Piers had previously offered to pay the parking fines of any NHS worker hit with parking tickets during the pandemic.
After the announcement such charges will be suspended, the Good Morning Britain host urged Mr Hancock to make the measures permanent.
He said: "Make it permanent… it would be outrageous to go back to charging NHS workers for parking at hospitals after this."
Documents reveal NHS staff paid £86 million at health service car parks in 2018/19.
Charges vary across the UK, with some hospitals charging workers more than £10 a shift to park in one of its car parks.
Staff working long shifts who then overstay their ticket can then be fined £80.
Paige Mason, a midwife at London's Royal Free NHS Trust's Barnet hospital launched a petition earlier this month calling for an urgent rethink.
She wrote: "At present there’s a two-year waiting list for permits and we have to pay £10 per shift to park.
"Some colleagues, who have family or partners on no pay or little pay, are struggling to afford the parking now."
Prime Minister Boris Johnson last night announced more than 500,000 people had answered the Government's call to volunteer for the NHS during the crisis.
People signed up to the National Help Service at a rate of five per second today, as health chiefs were “blown away” by the big-hearted response.
The new NHS Volunteer Responders force will be tasked with delivering vital medicines and shopping to 1.5million patients isolating from the killer virus.
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Officials had initially planned to recruit 250,000 healthy helpers after launching the scheme on Tuesday.
There are fears the NHS could reach breaking point at the peak of the crisis and run out of beds and ventilators for infected patients.
But England's top doctor Chris Whitty yesterday said there is optimism that if Brits obey social distancing measures the NHS may be able to withstand the unprecedented crisis.
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