Hospital car parks in the UK raked in £120 million last year

Hospitals in the UK raked in a whopping £120 million in parking charges last year, a new investigation has revealed.

The huge sum, which has soared by five percent in the last 12 months, saw some NHS trusts raking in almost £5million in parking charges, and more than half charging disabled patients – going against government guidelines.

And while hospital executives say the the parking funds are a key way of maintaining quality patient care, campaigners have accused high-ranking managers of taking cash from the sick and vulnerable.

At present, England is the only UK country to charge for hospital parking – after the fees were abolished in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.

But it is believed that the government does not plan to entirely scrap the fees, and only offers non-legally binding advice on providing free parking for disabled and patients and frequent visitors.

Freedom of information requests obtained by the Press Association, which analysed 89 hospital trusts, found that £120.7 million was generated from parking charges in 2015/16 – a rise of £114 million from the previous year.

However, it’s thought that the figure is actually much higher – as only 55 percent of the 160 hospital trusts provided data.

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It’s also believed that cancer patients are among the hardest hit by parking fees, having to regularly travel to chemotherapy sessions.

Rosie Downes, campaigns manager at Macmillan Cancer Support, said: ‘The last thing that somebody going through cancer treatment should be doing is worrying about whether there is enough money in the parking meter. Paying for hours of parking at hospital each week is a completely unacceptable expense at such a hard time.

‘Government guidance is very clear that cancer patients in England should not continue to pay unfair hospital parking charges. Hospitals must start adopting these guidelines.’

Speaking only last year to back concessions, a Department of Health spokesperson said: ‘Patients and families shouldn’t have to deal with the added stress of unfair parking charges. We expect all NHS organisations to follow our guidelines and put concessions in place for those who most need help, including disabled people, carers and staff who work shifts.’