Re: The reality.
Disclaimer Informed comment having worked in NHS IM&T, but several years ago. This might now be out of date.
At the moment, NHS sites don't have an internet connection, as such. They have a N3 connection, which is a national VPN to other NHS sites, with a link to the internet with a bunch of nice, but obsessively paranoid chaps watching the data going through to prevent hacking attacks.
It's now proposed to give literally the entire world access to an internet connection at NHS sites. Even if you treat this wifi as an untrusted LAN network with no access to anything but the WAN, this puts the wifi access to the "internet" on the inside of the N3. There are devices that can be discovered (digital X-ray machines, for instance) which offer their results via web page. As of my time in the NHS there were quite a few of these running XP etc, because manufacturers had gone out of business which basically means no updates for a multi million pound machine that should reasonably last another 20 years. The hospital running the system did have the system available via the N3, but not available on the internet which let GP's etc log in and view the scans without the security problems that you get by things being available online.
This is now going to be directly available to the public, and hackers. Yay. How safe and responsible. I'm glad i'm not working in the NHS IM&T now, although the crisis meetings must be interesting.
If the aim is to offer free internet access then it should be done by a separate ADSL line (not an N3!) especially for public access with no access to the NHS internal network. This however is a sideshow.
I'm a First Aider, and occasionally end up taking people to A&E where I think it's warranted, but an ambulance is not required. Last time I did this (within a month ago) it was a non work related thing with somebody having something impaled through their hand. (don't ask) Non life threatening, but beyond what medical guidelines (and common sense!) say to do as a first aider, so off to A&E. Obviously, with somebody in shock you really need to be as close as possible when dropping the person off, which means using their car park. We spent just over 4 hours there (5 minutes over their maximum parking cost bracket, coincidentally...?) to parking costs of ~£20. NCP charge £4.50 for an entire day parking in the same town centre, for reference.
Now, having dealt with facilities as well as IT at a SME with a hundred staff I happen to know for a fact that the lease for a coffee machine on a 5 year basis is available at a relatively low monthly cost. The company leasing a machine to us came and restocked it and did maintenance on the machine at a cost of (IIRC) 8p per hot drink, and 4p for cold drinks(orange/lemon&lime squash IIRC). We initially charged 10p for everything, before doing hot drinks at 20p and the cold ones free. Despite the obvious number of people going for cold drinks being somewhat higher, this covered the cost of the lease and made about a hundred quid profit a month. I note all of this because A&E had one of these machines as the only option for refreshments available, without the option to dispense water freely, which I happen to know for a fact is one of the default options which costs nothing but some wear on the water filter. A&E were charging £1.50 per drink from their machine for either hot or cold drinks, which as mentioned was the only refreshment available, and as noted above we were there for four hours. The term "profiteering" comes to mind when you know the economics!
Before buggering around with luxuries like wifi that have serious security implications that the esteemed minister hasn't even considered, perhaps some attention could be paid to basics. Parking costs should be reduced to no more than the average parking in the area, since it's literally unavoidable to use it in many cases, followed closely by the prices of food and drink for the public falling to the same level as provided in the (NHS staff) hospital canteen. Once both of those are dealt with then perhaps we could then look at free wifi, followed by considering public access in a safe and secure manner to medical resources on the NHS internal network.