Patients, visitors and staff paid more than £227MILLION to the NHS in parking fines and charges in just ONE YEAR

THE NHS raked in £227million in parking fines and charges from patients, visitors and staff last year, figures show.

Almost £70million was raised from workers and £157million from other motorists across all of its sites in 2017/18.

Union Unite, which represents 100,000 health workers, said the “scandalous” fees are a tax on “hard-pressed” employees.

And the Patients Association described them as “a charge on people who are unwell, levied on them because they are unwell”.

NHS Improvement, the hospital regulator, said trusts use the money to cover the cost of providing parking and for patient care.

Decisions on how much to charge patients, staff and visitors for parking at each location are made by individual trusts.

Former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt previously branded the fees “unfair”. And the Department of Health has issued guidance suggesting trusts offer discounts to disabled and severely ill people and their relatives.

They are also encouraged to help staff whose shift patterns mean they are unable to use public transport.

Sarah Carpenter, from Unison, said: “It is a scandal that NHS trusts in England have pocketed nearly £70million from staff car parking charges.

“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% over the next three years.

“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.”

Hospital parking charges were abolished in Wales earlier this year and largely scrapped in Scotland, but remain in England and Northern Ireland.

The figures were released by NHS Digital.

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