City hospitals raked in £8m from parking fees last year

PARKING at hospitals in Birmingham cost patients, visitors and staff £8 million last year.

Figures from NHS Digital show gross income for parking for hospital trusts covering the city was £6.1 million for patients and visitors in 2017/18. And staff had to fork out another £1.8 million.

The sum includes income from fines and parking permits, as well as service level agreements with other NHS organisations for use of the trusts’ car parks.

Parking at Birmingham Children’s Hospital cost an average of £1.83 an hour for a patient or visitor in 2017/18, the most expensive locally, although it was free for staff. But the hospital has reduced parking charges from £2 per hour.

The most expensive places for staff to park were Heartlands, Good Hope, Solihull Hospital and the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital, at 10p an hour, on average.

The cost of parking for patients and visitors at Queen Elizabeth Hospital has been raised from £1.40 per hour to £1.43.

But the Heart of England NHS trust dropped the cost of parking at all of its hospitals from an average of £1.58 per hour in 2016/17 to 75p per hour in 2017/18.

Birmingham Women’s Hospital has put the cost of parking for patients and visitors up from an average of £1.40 per hour in 2016/17 to £1.50 per hour in 2017/18.

The Children’s Hospital, Heartlands, Good Hope, Solihull, the Royal Orthopaedic and City Hospital all charge for disabled parking.

Trusts across England saw an income of £156.8 million in 2017/18 from parking for patients and visitors, and £69.5 million from parking for staff.