Local NHS Trusts Criticised For Car Parking Charges
Northern Lincolnshire and Goole and Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals both generated more than one million pounds from the fees last year.
Some NHS hospital trusts are making more than £3m a year from car parking charges - an investigation has found.
Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust made over £2.15m from the fees last year, while Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust generated £1.54m.
Year on year, hospitals across England are raising increasing amounts of money from staff, patients and visitors, including those who are disabled, the Freedom of Information study by the Press Association found. Hospitals are also handing over millions of pounds to private firms to run their car parks for them, and allowing some to cash in on parking fines.
Others are tied into private finance initiative (PFI) contracts, where all the money raised from charging ill patients, staff and visitors goes to private firms under lengthy contracts.
Of more than 90 trusts that responded to the FoI request, half are making at least £1 million a year.
Seven NHS trusts earned more than £3 million in 2014/15 from charges, a further eight made more than £2 million a year while a further 32 earned more than £1 million a year.
Almost half of all trusts also charged disabled people for parking in some or all of their disabled spaces.
Many trusts defended their revenues, saying some or all of the money was put back into patient care or was spent on maintaining car parks or grounds.
Others claimed their sheer size and the fact that they serve busy neighbourhoods meant they took more in revenue.
Trusts here have also been defending their revenues. In a statement, Keith Fowler, head of facilities at Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals Foundation Trust, told us:
“The main use of the income generated by car parking charges is to pay for our car park and security services. This includes running costs like maintenance, rental for park and ride and utilities. We are also seeing an increased security requirement which protects our staff, patients and visitors from violent and aggressive behaviour. Any surplus income comes back to the Trust, not the contractor.
“The company we contract to carry out the car parking and security service does not receive any incentives or additional income from parking charges.
“We offer free parking for cancer patients, concessions for long-term visitors and offer a flat rate of £2 per day for blue badge holders.
“The current tariff has remained the same since January 2014.”