Stealth tax on sick has returned

DAYS after the Conservatives won the election in 2019 Health Secretary Matt Hancock lauded a “new approach” to end the scandal of rip-off hospital parking charges.

But more than a year later the issue – described as a tax on the sick – remains.

Individual NHS trusts are responsible for car parking, including setting charges. But profits must be reinvested into care.

Some have handed over enforcement to private companies, which own the land. It means trusts and the Government are largely powerless to intervene, whatever the order.

From April last year all 206 hospital trusts in England were told they were expected to provide free car parking to certain groups, including those disproportionately impacted by daily or hourly charges.

They included outpatients who have to attend regular appointments to manage long-term conditions and staff working night shifts.

Waive

Speaking on December 27, 2019 Mr Hancock said: “From April 2020 those with the greatest need – such as disabled people, parents staying overnight with sick children in hospital, and NHS staff working night shifts – will no longer have to pay for parking.”

After Covid struck, cash was handed to trusts to provide free parking for front line heroes. They were expected to waive fees for the rest of the pandemic.

But hospital parking is a postcode lottery with charges differing wildly.

Despite still being in the grip of the Covid emergency it is thought more than half of trusts in England have reimposed charges.

Last month University Hospital of North Midlands NHS Trust reinstated patient charges at Royal Stoke University Hospital and County Hospital, Stafford.

Harrogate Hospital took the “difficult” decision to reintroduce all parking fees after they were paused.

And Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust reintroduced charges for patients and visitors, which had been free since the pandemic began.

Yet Wales ended hospital parking charges in 2018 and Scotland did it in 2009.