NHS: Cost of parking at UK hospitals up by a staggering 50 per cent - in just one year

Hospital patients and visitors forked out £146m for car parking last year – up by 50 per cent from the previous year, figures show.

Information taken from NHS data shows hospital trusts pocketed a total of £145.8m from patients and visitors in parking fees. This was up 50 per cent from £96.7m a year earlier, and triple the £47.9m made from parking fees two years ago.

Across last year, it was the equivalent of £400,000 spent in hospital car parks every day. Hospital staff were also hit hard as fees paid by them increased eight-fold compared to the previous year, from £5.6m to an eye-watering £46.7m.

The Liberal Democrats, who uncovered the data, branded it a “tax on caring” and criticised the Tory government for “failing to deliver” on a manifesto pledge to end unfair hospital car parking charges.

Parking charges that had been scrapped during the pandemic were reintroduced in March last year.

Patricia Marquis, the Royal College of Nursing’s director for England, said: “For nursing staff and support workers, the soaring cost of parking takes too much of their low wage. Government and the NHS must rethink – leaving nursing staff out of pocket just for doing their jobs is wholly unfair.”

Liberal Democrat health and social care spokesperson Daisy Cooper said: “Hospital car parking fees are becoming a tax on caring for visitors and our hard-working NHS staff. This Conservative government is utterly failing to deliver on their promise to crack down on unfair hospital parking fees, and people are literally paying the price.”

Current NHS guidance, updated in March 22, says that disabled people, frequent outpatient attenders, parents of sick children staying overnight and staff working night shifts should park for free. NHS trusts, on a voluntary basis, should also ensure fees are “reasonable for the area” – but can decide how they charge.

Ms Cooper added: “It is unthinkable that Rishi Sunak is slashing NHS funding when hospitals are already on the brink. This will just make the cash crisis facing local health services even worse, forcing them to make more impossible choices in the years ahead. The message to the public couldn’t be clearer, voting Conservative is bad for your wallet and bad for your health.”

A Conservative spokesman said: “The Conservatives have fulfilled their manifesto pledge to end unfair charges for those in greatest need. The Lib Dems should come clean as to which services they would cut to subsidise parking further.”