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Parking fees paid by staff increased eight-fold compared to last year
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Hospital patients and visitors were forced to pay £146m for parking last year as the total cost soared after falling during the pandemic.
Critics branded the charges a “care tax” and accused ministers of failing to deliver on a Conservative manifesto promise to end unfair fees.
Campaign groups also warned that “sky-high” prices could deter people from seeking medical care or deprive them of the support they receive from visitors.
NHS trusts’ gross income from patient and visitor parking was £145.8 million in 2022/23, NHS England figures show.
This was 50 per cent up on £96.7m the previous year, and triple the £47.9m made from parking charges two years ago. Over the past year, the equivalent of £400,000 was spent every day on hospital car parks.
Hospital patients and their visitors had to fork out £146 million in parking charges (File Image)
Ministers were accused of failing to deliver on Tory manifesto commitment to abolish unfair tariffs (File image)
Pictured: A sign for the Darlington Memorial Hospital visitor car park (file image)
Activists also expressed concern that senior officials could discourage patients from seeking care (File image)
The NHS Trust’s gross income from parking increased by 50 per cent on last year. Pictured: A visitor car park at Brookland Hospital in Dover, Kent (file image)
Chart shows the ten NHS trusts with the highest income from parking charges
University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust recorded the highest income from parking fees for patients and visitors last year, at £5.2 million, followed by University Hospitals Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust, at £3.6 millions.
Meanwhile, parking fees paid by hospital staff increased more than eightfold nationally compared to the previous year, from £5.6 million in 2021/22 to £46.7 million in 2022/23.
The huge jump is due to parking fees removed during the Covid-19 pandemic being reintroduced in March last year.
The figures cover parking fees, permits, fines and VAT, but exclude any charges or costs incurred by trusts using external parking contractors. Current totals are lower than before the pandemic. In 2019-20, patients and their visitors paid £199.2 million for parking, and staff were charged £90.1 million.
Current NHS guidance, updated in March last year, says disabled people, frequent outpatients, parents of sick children staying overnight and staff working night shifts should park for free.
The guidelines also recommend that any charges be “reasonable for the area” while deterring travelers and shoppers.
But 18 trusts still make disabled people pay for parking at some or all of their sites, NHS data suggests.
Pictured: Surface car park at a hospital in Lancaster (file image)
Pictured: A car park outside Macclesfield General Hospital in Cheshire (file image)
Daisy Cooper, the Liberal Democrats’ health and social care spokesperson, who revealed the figures, said: ‘Hospital parking charges are becoming a tax on the care of visitors and our hard-working NHS staff.
“This Conservative government is failing to deliver on its promise to crack down on unfair hospital parking charges, and people are literally paying the price.”
A Conservative spokesperson said: ‘The Conservatives have delivered on their stated commitment to ending unfair charging for those who need it most. “The Lib Dems should clarify which services they would cut to further subsidize parking.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said they had provided free parking at hospitals in England for those most in need.
He added: ‘As of October 2022, all trusts that charge for vehicle parking have fully implemented this commitment. This is the first time that free hospital parking in England has been made available to those who need it most.’