“A total of 2,000 euros in fines”: independent nurses overwhelmed by parking fines
Healthcare workers are facing major parking difficulties and increasing fines. Nearly 80% of independent nurses struggle to find parking, and 70% have already been fined, according to a professional union.
Anger is brewing among independent nurses . Frédérique Lecomte, a home nurse in Annemasse, says she had to move her practice because car access to the city center had become impossible. But that's not what sparked her anger: " A colleague's ticket went up to €2,000, which they came to deduct from her account. We're fed up ," she told Le Dauphiné Libéré . The reason is that home caregivers are facing an avalanche of parking fines that further complicate their daily work. These healthcare professionals must make up to 50 visits a day to their patients, which requires them to park around forty times a day, according to the local newspaper. Although a mobile app grants them 45 minutes of free parking, this period often proves insufficient.
Especially since nurses previously had their license plates identified by SAGS, the parking management company in Annemasse, allowing them to avoid fines . Overnight, this tolerance disappeared, replaced by automated checks with an application called Timo, which acts as a mobile ticket. The same one where nurses are entitled to 45 free minutes, renewable. "We sometimes do about fifteen Timos a day, and despite everything, we still get fined because we go over the time limit," Frédérique angrily told the Dauphiné. "When you're providing care, you don't leave everything to recharge your Timo ," she adds.
The situation in Annemasse is not isolated. In several municipalities across France, independent nurses are warning of the increase in parking fines, which are straining their budgets and threatening the organization of home care. In Valenciennes, a nurse received €900 in fines in one year, TF1 Info reported in early 2025. In Clamart, another accumulated more than €6,500 in fines in two years for lack of free or suitable parking, Le Canard Enchaîné reported in April 2024.
Earlier this year, the Covergence Nurses union published the results of its own survey conducted in 2024 among 2,786 independent nurses. The result: more than 80% of independent nurses encounter daily difficulties parking near their patients, and 70% have already been fined. Faced with parking constraints, 62% of independent nurses report having already given up covering certain areas.
While some cities like Paris and Calais have introduced free parking schemes or professional parking permits to make it easier for caregivers to park, the majority of municipalities leave nurses to their own devices, subject to strict rules and automated checks . "Faced with this reality, some areas subject to prohibitive parking charges risk suffering a loss of home care provision to the detriment of patients ," explained Emmanuelle Anthoine, former LR MP for Drôme, in a bill aimed at creating a parking permit for independent nurses.
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