Fury as hospital parking scandal gets WORSE despite Conservative manifesto pledge to end unfair fees: Patients and visitors are forced to fork out £146MILLION in the last year with worst trusts named and shamed
- Parking fees paid by staff have increased more than eightfold compared to last year
Hospital patients and their visitors were forced to pay £146 million to park their cars last year as overall costs soared after falling during the pandemic.
Critics branded the charges a 'tax on caring' and accused ministers of failing to deliver on a Tory manifesto pledge to end unfair fees.
Campaign groups also warned that the 'sky-high' prices could put people off seeking care or deprive them of the support they get from visitors.
NHS Trusts' gross revenue from patient and visitor parking was £145.8 million in 2022/2023, NHS England figures show.
This was up 50 per cent on £96.7 million a year earlier, and tripled the £47.9 million earned from parking charges two years ago. Last year £400,000 was spent every day on hospital car parks.
Hospital patients and their visitors had to pay £146 million in parking charges (Stock Image)
Ministers accused of failing to deliver on Tory manifesto pledge to abolish unfair fees (Stock Image)
Pictured: A visitor parking sign at Darlington Memorial Hospital (stock image)
Campaigners also raised concerns that high costs could deter patients from seeking care (Stock Image)
NHS Trust's gross income from parking was 50 per cent higher than last year. Pictured: A visitors car park at Brookland Hospital in Dover, Kent (File Image)
Graphic shows the ten NHS trusts with the highest income from parking charges
University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust reported the largest income from patient and visitor parking charges last year, with £5.2 million, followed by University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust, with £3.6 million.
Meanwhile, nationally, parking charges paid by hospital staff have increased more than eightfold compared to the previous year, from £5.6m in 2021/22 to £46.7m in 2022/23.
The huge jump is due to the fact that parking charges, which had been scrapped during the Covid-19 pandemic, were reintroduced in March last year.
The figures cover parking charges, permits, fines and VAT, but do not include 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, while staff had to pay £90.1 million.
Under current NHS guidelines, which were updated in March last year, disabled people, frequent outpatient visitors, parents of sick children staying overnight and staff working night shifts must park for free.
The guidelines also recommend that any charges are 'reasonable for the area' while also deterring commuters and shoppers.
But 18 trusts still make disabled people pay for parking at some or all of their sites, NHS data suggests.
Pictured: A hospital surface parking garage in Lancaster (File Image)
Pictured: A car park outside Macclesfield General Hospital in Cheshire (File Image)
Liberal Democrats health and social care spokesperson Daisy Cooper, who revealed the figures, said: 'Hospital parking charges are becoming a burden on the care of visitors and our hardworking NHS staff.
“This Conservative government is completely failing to deliver on its promise to tackle unfair hospital parking charges, and people are literally paying the price.”
A Tory spokesperson said: 'The Conservatives have delivered on their manifesto promise to end unfair charges for those most in need. The Lib Dems must make it clear which services they would cut to further subsidize parking.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said they had provided free hospital parking for those most in need in England.
He added: 'From October 2022, all trusts that charge for car parking will have fully implemented this commitment. This is the first time that free parking at hospitals in England has been made available to those who need it most.”