£2m parking costs for NHS staff at work
STAFF at Leicestershire hospitals paid nearly £2 million pounds to park at work last year.
Parking tickets, permits and fines for staff brought in £1.7 million at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust in 2019/20.
That was a 14% increase compared to the £1.5 million paid in 2018/19, according to figures from NHS Digital.
On top of this, patients and visitors paid £3.4 million to park last year - leaving a £3.6 million profit after the £1.6 million cost of parking services.
In March 2020, the UK Government announced financial support for all trusts to provide free car parking for staff during the coronavirus outbreak, while councils were encouraged to also provide free spaces.
But a union has claimed some trusts are charging for parking again.
Post-pandemic plans would require fewer people to pay for parking, but staff on some shift patterns could still be charged.
At the trust’s sites, staff paid 10p an hour on average in 2019/20, while patients paid £1.13 per hour on average.
Staff are more likely to have parking permits - so, for example, if they are paying £2.40 a day, that would equate to 10p per hour.
The cost of parking for both groups has dropped from 2018/19 - down by 3p per hour for staff and £2.17 per hour for patients and visitors.
The trust also charged for disabled parking last year..
Across England, NHS trusts raked in £90 million from staff parking last year. That was up from £86 million in 2018/19.
Just over a quarter of NHS sites (353) charge staff to park. Most of these (302) are run by hospital trusts.
Just 15 hospital sites stopped charging staff to park last year.
A mental health unit in Suffolk was the most expensive place for staff to park at £2.50 per hour, while St George’s at Queen Mary’s Hospital was the most expensive hospital for staff parking at £2 per hour.
Rachel Harrison, GMB National Officer, said: “Charging dedicated NHS staff to park at work is disgraceful at the best of times. In the middle of a pandemic it is sickening..
“Government cuts have inflicted a heavy toll on the NHS, but Trusts should not be clawing that cash back by charging the people we rely on to keep us alive.
“GMB persuaded the Government to scrap parking charges for all health and social care staff at the start of the pandemic. But now many are charging once again.
“Ministers must now support our healthcare heroes by enforcing free hospital staff parking and scrapping plans to reintroduce charges once the pandemic ends.”
NHS Trusts also brought in £199 million from patient and visitor parking in 2019/20, up from £186 million a year before.
Overall, providing parking services cost trusts £70 million in 2019/20.
During a debate on free hospital parking during the pandemic last month, Zarah Sultana, the Labour MP for Coventry South said: “As far back as June, parking charges were reintroduced for NHS staff at University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire.
“Ever since, staff have been made to pay for parking. Similar things have happened at NHS trusts across the country. Charges were brought back at the nearby University Hospitals Birmingham and at the South Warwickshire NHS Trust, as well as in places as far afield as the Harrogate District Hospital and Wye Valley NHS Trust.
“Even now, as the second wave puts renewed pressure on NHS staff, charges are being reintroduced.”
Minister for Health Edward Argar responded by saying that while parking policy was decided at trust level, additional funding had been made available on the expectation that free parking for staff would be provided.
On January 1, it became mandatory for hospital trusts to offer blue badge holders and frequent outpatients with long-term conditions free parking all day, as well as parents of sick children staying in hospital overnight and staff working night shifts.
However, because of the ongoing pandemic, and possible capacity issues for sites currently offering free parking to all staff, Mr Argar has said there would be flexibility in rolling this out.