Hospital parking costs a ‘tax on the sick’

Royal Oldham Hospital

PATIENTS, visitors and staff paid £2.47million in car parking charges inside a year at the Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, it has been revealed.

The trust, which runs the Royal Oldham Hospital, North Manchester and Fairfield General hospitals, Rochdale Infirmary and a range of community services, recorded the 11th highest amount collected in 2014-15 of the 90 trusts who responded to the Freedom of Information request by the Press Association.

Seven NHS trusts earned more than £3 million in charges in 2014-15, while another eight made more than £2 million and 32 more than £1 million a year.

Several organisations, including Macmillan Cancer Support and the Patients’ Association, hit out at “unfair” hospital parking costs for patients.

Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients’ Association, said: “We are concerned that hospitals in England still charge patients for car parking. Why is it that patients in Wales and Scotland don’t have to pay to park? It’s a postcode lottery and a tax on the sick.

“The money is never reinvested in frontline services. Hospital car parks are often managed by private contractors who take a huge percentage of the profits.”

Rosie Downes, senior campaigns officer at Macmillan Cancer Support, added: “The core principle of the NHS is to provide free healthcare for all at the point of access.

“But sadly these latest figures show that some cancer patients in England are still paying extortionate hospital car parking charges. Cancer patients receiving vital treatments such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy will often need to make frequent trips to hospital and unaffordable charges are leaving many out of pocket.”

A Department of Health spokesman said: “We expect all NHS organisations to follow our guidelines on car parking, including offering discounts to disabled people. Patients and families shouldn’t have to deal with the added stress of unfair parking charges. Our guidance helps the public to hold the NHS to account for unfair charges or practices.”

Barry Waterhouse, travel and access manager at the trust, said: “The income the trust receives always appears high as we control over 4,800 parking spaces across five sites. All the revenue, after costs have been covered, is reinvested in our facilities.”