Midlands hospitals make £11 MILLION from parking fees

Figures released by the NHS show the five trusts covering the Black Country and Staffordshire raked in nearly £3.4m from staff and a further £8.2m from patients and visitors in 2017-18.

NHS trusts across England made a combined total of almost £157m from parking charges over the same period – a figure slammed by union bosses.

University Hospital Of North Midlands NHS Trust, which runs Stafford's County Hospital, made £3.6m, while the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust brought in £2.6m and Sandwell And West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust made £2.45m.

The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust brought in £1.5m, and Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust made £1.3m.

The Patients Association has criticised parking charges for patients, describing them as 'a charge on people who are unwell, levied on them because they are unwell'.

However, chief executive Rachel Power said they were a way for hospitals to generate revenue at a time when they are under 'immense' financial pressure.

Priority

"The top priority for any new NHS funding should be patient care," she said.

"At a time when patients are receiving undignified and unsafe care on hospital corridors, car parking charges are not the top priority – undesirable though they may be.”

Unite, which represents 100,000 health workers, said charges to staff of £70m across the country were 'a scandal' and amounted to a 'tax on hard-pressed' employees.

"Such a large figure will take a large chunk out of the gains in the current NHS pay package which saw most staff get a pay rise of 6.5 per cent over the next three years," union officer Sarah Carpenter said.

"This pernicious trend is replicated by financially squeezed trusts across England. Our members are being used as an extra income stream for these trusts.

"We would like a situation where dedicated NHS staff, who don't earn a fortune, don't have to pay to park their cars to go to work to look after the sick, the vulnerable and the injured 365 days a year."

A spokeswoman for NHS Improvement, said income generated from the charges was used to pay the costs of providing parking, while excess funds were put into clinical services.

“As we develop the long-term plan for the NHS, it is right that trusts continue to develop their commercial income opportunities," she said.

“This is so that they can maintain their services and ensure they can provide patients with high quality care, both now and in future.”