Hospital parking rakes in millions

Patients and their family and friends are paying more than £83 million in fees – while staff are also being hit for £27 million.

Three NHS trusts made more than £2 million from visitors fees alone in 2007/08, according to the figures released by the Department of Health.

The figure for the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust was £684,566.

Charges were introduced at the Royal Shrewsbury more than 10 years ago, initially to raise cash for maternity services. They were later introduced at Telford's Princess Royal.

A trust spokesman said today: "Our hospital car parking charges are a maximum of £2 per day.

"We also have a wide range of concessions to support people on low incomes or people who are on treatment plans that require regular visits to hospital."

A £1 charge was first introduced at Oswestry's Orthopaedic Hospital in 2004, but is also now £2. Last year it raised £136,000.

Some 37 trusts raised more than £1 million from parking charges.

They included Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which made a total of £2.7 million.

The highest average hourly charge for visitors was £3.20 at Worthing & Southlands Hospitals NHS Trust in Sussex.

The figures were released in response to parliamentary questions.

Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said: "Hospitals have a responsibility to provide affordable parking and good transport to and from the hospital.

"If parking charges are damaging patients' access to services, stopping their friends and relatives from visiting or impeding staff from doing their job properly then they're clearly too high.

"It's evidence of the Government's waste and 'boom and bust' approach to the NHS finances that some hospitals are still having to rely on the revenue from these charges when Labour have more than doubled spending on health since 1997."

But a Department of Health spokesman ruled out a move to free parking, as has happened in Scotland.

By Dave Morris