Salisbury NHS staff paid £1.3m in parking fees since 2022, figures show
It's been called a tax on working for the NHS
It's been revealed that NHS staff at Salisbury District Hospital have paid over £1.3 million in parking charges, just to go to work in the last two years.
The figures, from NHS England show staff paid almost three-quarters of a million pounds in 2022/23.
It's been described as a 'tax on working for the NHS' by workers union, Unison.
Lead Unison Steward and Staff Side Chair at Salisbury District Hospital, Mark Wareham, said the hospital has likely made several million pounds since parking charges were introduced back in 2011.
He said: "We don't think that's fair because it is making up for a shortfall in government funding of the NHS and it's basically an extra tax on working for the NHS.
"It is funding services which should be paid by the general taxpayer. We don't think that they should pay because you pay your taxes which fund the NHS.
"It should not be the case that any NHS hospital feels that they have to raise extra money from these sorts of ventures because it's unfair."
It's led to calls for parking charges to be scrapped, with more funding coming from Government.
Mr Wareham said: "We've seen that that the cost of supply of services is far in excess of the amount of money that the government is putting into the NHS in general.
"There is a pent up demand there and we hope that the government will seek to address that years and years of underfunding, but it's we understand it's not going to be easy."
Changes made to help staff
In an effort to aid staff, Salisbury District Hospital has introduced a banded charging structure based on staff's salary, as well as funding a free hopper bus service to the local park and ride.
In a statement, a Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust spokesperson said: “The income from all car parking charges at the hospital is re-invested in hospital services. If the income from car parking was not available, the Trust would have to replace the income from somewhere else or reduce what is spent.
Last year to support staff travel to work the Trust spent £80,000 on a staff discount for the Reds buses, £150,000 on a free staff Hopper Bus and £14,000 on the car sharing platform Liftshare. In addition, £120,000 was spent on car park staff, maintenance and lighting for the car parks.
Free parking is provided for staff working night shifts from 19.30. Free parking is also provided for all Blue Badge holders, patients and visitors between 22.00-06.00, those on site for 30 minutes or less, anyone visiting an end-of-life patient, patients with frequent outpatient appointments and those attending for oncology and renal treatment.
Data has indicated that approximately 19% of attendees don’t pay for parking at the hospital.”
As part of the Autumn Budget 2024, the government allocated an extra £25.7 billion of investment in the NHS over the next two years.