Hospitals have raked in more than ￡1 billion in car parking fees in the last six years (Image: Getty)
Campaigners called for hospital car parking fees to be axed after it emerged staff, patients and visitors have paid more than ￡1 billion in the last six years.
New analysis shows people shelled out ￡242.8 million to park at hospitals in 2023/24, up from ￡192.5 million the year before.
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Dennis Reed, director of the Silver Voices campaign group for over 60s, said: "Wes Streeting in Opposition referred to 'rip-off' hospital parking charges and Keir Starmer slammed Boris Johnson on the same issue. Now is their chance to do something about this scandal.
"Nobody goes to hospital to visit the mediocre shops or overpriced coffee outlets, they go because they are visiting someone who is sick, or they are an NHS worker.
"Hospital parking charges have no moral justification and should be abolished entirely."
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Staff paid ￡70.5 million last year while patients and visitors forked out ￡172.3 million.
The Lib Dems, who carried out the analysis, called on the government to work with NHS trusts to reduce fees for visitors and staff.
The party's social care spokesperson Alison Bennett said: “Patients and staff are being hit with a one billion bombshell of hospital car parking charges. This is an unfair tax on the sick and on hard-working NHS staff and it has to stop.
“It cannot be right that nurses have to pay through the nose to get to work or that patients are subjected to sky-high fees to get treatment they desperately need."
University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire collected more than ￡37.3 million in the last six years, followed by University Hospitals Birmingham with ￡25.2 million and Manchester University NHS Trust with ￡23.9 million, according to the analysis.
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Age UK charity director Caroline Abrahams said: “We know that hospital trusts are battling to keep their finances under control, but it’s a shame that one of the ways in which many are seeking to plug the gaps is by making car parking ever more expensive.
"This hits patients and their families and friends on low incomes the hardest so is bound to worsen health inequalities, the reverse of what the NHS is trying to do.
“We would like to see hospitals given enough state funding so they don’t resort to hiking their car parking fees.
"That would be good for everyone, including those older people who are frequent attendees of outpatient clinics, many of whom find that driving to hospital is the only practical and reliable way of getting there.”
Dr Latifa Patel, chair of the representative body at the BMA and workforce lead, added: “It’s shameful that nothing has been done to address unfair hospital car parking charges on NHS sites in England. They are a covert tax on the sick, their family and friends who visit, and the healthcare workers who care for them.
“Some Trusts may invest a portion of the revenue they get from these charges into patient care, but that’s not guaranteed. Ultimately, they remain another hike in the cost of living and can seriously damage staff morale.
“Healthcare workers need to be valued to stay working in the NHS; addressing punitive hospital parking charges, and better still, removing them altogether, is an immediate and obvious way to do that.”
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The highest year out of the last six was 2019/20 when staff, patients and visitors paid ￡289.3 million in car parking charges.
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A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Hospital car park charges are the responsibility of individual NHS trusts, however any charges must be reasonable and in line with the local area.
“Any revenue is used to maintain car park facilities and surplus income is put back into the NHS.
“Free parking is available for all NHS staff who work overnight, as well as Blue Badge holders, frequent outpatient attenders, and parents of sick children staying overnight in hospital.”