NHS car parking charges in England. A tax on the sick?

I had this letter published in the Western Daily Press on January 3rd.  The editor gave it the headline "English patients face unfair 'tax on sick'."

"We supposedly live in a United Kingdom where one would assume all its citizens are treated equally, but that appears not to be the case.  NHS hospitals in England made a record £174million last year from charging for car parking, but such charges are not the same across the UK.  While car parking charges have been largely abolished in Scotland and Wales this "tax on the sick" is still levied in England.  The same situation exists with regard to NHS prescriptions; only the English have to pay. 

Since Devolution, MPs representing English constituencies seem to have entered a fog of indifference at Westminster, making them either unwilling or unable to recognise and remedy these and other inequalities.  Create a Parliament for England and its members could no doubt be just as vigorous and successful in obtaining rights, benefits and opportunities for their constituents as those sitting in the Scottish Parliament, Welsh and Northern Irish Assemblies are for theirs."  

S,W.
Ilminster, Somerset.