Last year, the Chancellor of Justice was approached with a concern that at the Magdaleena unit of ITK, even patients using designated parking spaces for vehicles serving people with disabilities were required to pay parking fees.
The ITK parking lots are located on private property, which gives the owner the right to set parking fees at their discretion. Nevertheless, the Chancellor of Justice proposed to the hospital’s management that parking fees should not be charged to owners of parking cards intended for persons with disabilities.
The Chancellor of Justice reminded the hospital management that, according to Article 9(1) of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, access to public buildings and services must be ensured for persons with disabilities on an equal basis with others. Additionally, Article 28 of the Estonian Constitution states that persons with disabilities are under the special care of the state.
The Chancellor emphasized that persons with disabilities face a significantly higher risk of poverty compared to the general population. For instance, in 2023, the relative poverty rate among persons with disabilities was 41.1% (compared to 20.2% among the general population). In the previous year, 13.4% of people aged 16 and older rated their health as poor or very poor, while the figure was as high as 53.8% among persons with disabilities. This indicates that persons with disabilities are more likely to use healthcare services than others. For this reason, the Chancellor urged the hospital management to consider whether it is reasonable to charge parking fees to persons with disabilities, who likely need to visit healthcare facilities more frequently, even when using a parking card for vehicles serving individuals with mobility disabilities or visual impairments.
The CEO of AS Ida-Tallinna Keskhaigla informed the Chancellor of Justice at the end of last year that the hospital had updated its parking regulations, taking into account the Chancellor's proposal, and introduced a change allowing owners of parking cards for vehicles serving individuals with mobility disabilities or visual impairments to park free of charge.