Revealed: Hospitals make £11.4m from parking in one year

Cash from patients, visitors and staff at hospitals in the region totalled £11.4m during 2018/19.

The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, which runs New Cross and Cannock Chase hospitals, received £2.6m from parking charges, while Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust, which runs Sandwell General and Birmingham City hospitals, made £2.4m.

The figure was £3.4m at the University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust, which runs County Hospital in Stafford as well as Royal Stoke Hospital.

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Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs Walsall Manor Hospital and Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Russells Hall Hospital, made £1.5m each.

Of the total figure, £8.3m was paid by patients and visitors coming to see loved ones.

It costs around £5 on average to park for four hours at West Midlands hospitals. Critics have labelled parking charges as a "tax on the sick".

'Outrageous'

Ian Austin, MP for Dudley North, has been an outspoken critic of hospital parking charges. He says the latest figures are more evidence they should be scrapped.

Mr Austin said: "These are outrageous figures. It is completely unfair to charge sick people or their relatives so much.

"I have campaigned for years for hospital parking charges to be scrapped and will be raising these figures in Parliament again."

Natasha Allmark, from the Wolverhampton Liberal Democrats, said: "We all are sick of hospital car parking charges. They are just a tax on the sick and need to be axed.

“It is just an unfair and wrong stealth tax. It‘s bad enough having illness needing hospital without having to pay to visit."

Christine Szygowski, chief executive of Age UK Dudley, said elderly people are particularly affected by the charges.

She said: "For older people who often spend a lot of time in hospitals it hits them hard. Often they are not just there for 30 minutes, visits can be an hour and a half."

Trusts said the money goes into running of hospitals and that incentives were available.

Reinvested

Dudley Group NHS Trust chief executive Diane Wake said: "Income from the staff car parks pays for running costs such as maintenance, security, and cleaning. Any surplus goes back into patient care.

Alan Kenny, director of estates at Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust, said: “We publish our car parking information and tariffs in our annual report, and review car parking charges annually, which have been frozen between 2017-19.

"We operate a number of discounted car parking schemes for people who are attending regularly including daily, weekly and monthly unlimited parking tickets and offer some free parking for relatives who are visiting patients in hospital for extended periods and supporting their care."

A University Hospitals of North Midlands Trust spokesman said: "We have benchmarked against other NHS organisations regarding parking charges and our charges are in line with the national average.

“Parking tariffs ensure the cost of maintaining this vital service does not impact on finances allocated for patient care. As such, any surplus finance generated from car parking is reinvested directly back into patient care."

Gwen Nuttall, chief operating officer for The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, said: “All the money raised from parking charges goes back into patient care and non-clinical services; this includes maintaining and refurbishing the hospital site, and purchasing items that enable our services to meet the needs of patients.

"Where possible we have concessions in place, including a reduced car parking charge for patients receiving cancer treatment."