Hospital parking costs a ‘tax on the sick’

HOSPITALS are making more than £3.6 million a year between them from auto parking charges.

Wigan, Stockport and Tameside NHS Trusts did not respond to the FOI requests.

Nearly half of all trusts also charged disabled people for parking in some or all of their disabled spaces including Mid Yorkshire Hospital Trust, which also runs Wakefield Pinderfields Hospital and Pontefract General Infirmary.

Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, said the fees were “morally wrong”. It’s a postcode lottery and a tax on the sick.

A BSUH spokesman said: “The income from parking is reinvested in services for patients, as well as in the management and maintenance of our vehicle parks”. Hospital auto parks are often managed by private contractors who take a huge percentage of the profits.

Last year, parking charges at the hospital were changed so that people have to pay a single charge of £3 for 24 hours, replacing the previous charges of £2 for up to four hours, £3 for four to six hours and £4 for between six and 24 hours.

“The trust fully meets and exceeds the Department of Health’s NHS patient, visitor and staff vehicle parking principles”. “Our guidance helps the public to hold the NHS to account for unfair charges or practices”.

– Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust raised £3,160,913 in 2014/15.

No-one was immediately available for comment from the Heart of England NHS Trust or Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust.

Among those which made less than £2m were Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust with £1.87m and Bolton NHS Foundation Trust with £1.3m.

Seven NHS trusts earned more than £3m in 2014-15 from charges, another eight made more than £2m a year and a further 33 earned more than £1m a year.

“Charges were set at below the regional average following a benchmark survey of vehicle parking charges across the north west”.

“For some patients and their families, the costs can really rack up, which is why these figures are so worrying”.

She said: “At the moment what we see is that staff are pretty much at breaking point”. I’m pleased to say that we have had no reports of nurse staffing levels negatively impacting on patient safety.

The probe into Southern Health showed the trust failed to look into the deaths of hundreds of people since 2011 and campaigners warned the problems were more widespread. “We think it should be free or a very minimal charge but not the sort of fee that it is at the moment”.

“We have nearly 3,800 auto park spaces which are used several times a day by patients, visitors and staff”.

The hospital announced in August that it would refund numerous fines, while the cameras that monitor number plates in the vehicle park remain switched off while work is undertaken to improve signage.