£5m paid to park at hospitals
TRUST COLLECTED £605K MORE THAN PREVIOUS YEAR, WITH WHAT MP CALLS ‘A TAX ON THE SICK’
CAR parking charges totalled more than £5 million for Leicester’s Hospitals in 2018/19.
The figure, revealed in University Hospitals of Leicester’s annual report, means the trust collected £605,000 more than it did in 2017/18.
Patients and visitors are charged by the hour to park on site at the Leicester Royal Infirmary, which operates a pay on exit system, and at the Leicester General and Glenfield Hospitals, which are both pay and display sites.
Leicester South MP and shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth branded the charges a “tax on the sick” but the trust argued that without the income there would be a “direct effect” on patient care and frontline services.
Mr Ashworth said: “Hospital car parking charges really are a tax on the sick and a Jeremy Corbyn Labour government has committed to abolishing them.
“Jeremy Corbyn has outlined a plan to fund scrapping hospital car parking charging by a fairer taxation system.”
The Labour leader has previously suggested a tax on those who can afford private healthcare could make up the revenue lost by ending hospital car parking charges.
Nigel Bond, deputy director of estates and facilities at Leicester’s Hospitals, said: “We own and operate our hospital car parks and any income we generate we spend on delivering these services to patients and staff.
“Last year, charging POLICE efforts to stop a vehicle on the M1 in Leicestershire led to the target vehicle crashing into the central reservation, causing hold-ups for motorway traffic.
Officers, who were following the vehicle as part of an ongoing operation, tried to stop it travelling north on the M1 between Junctions 20, for Lutterworth, and 21, for Fosse Park and the M69.
The collision, at about 2pm on Wednesday, led to the outer lanes north and southbound between the two junctions being closed for our 15,500 staff to park generated £1.6 million which we used to rent car parks from external providers which costs us over £1 million a year and to run the Hospital Hopper which is free for staff to use. Over two million patients, visitors and members of the public use our car parks every year which generates around £3.4 million.
“This is used to cover the day-today running cost of the car parks – security and car parking staff, maintenance, lighting, CCTV, repairing roads and footpaths, hire costs and business rate.
“We also use that money to increase the number of spaces for the public; a few years ago, we built the multi-storey car park at the royal infirmary.
“If we did not charge for car parking then we would have to find money elsewhere which would have a direct effect on patient care and the frontline services we provide.”
The annual accounts also revealed that the trust raised an additional £3.4 million in its restaurants and catering outlets which Mr Bond said does not generate a profit. He explained: “In our retail catering outlets we generate £3.4 million across our three main sites. It costs us £1.6 million a year to staff the outlets and around three hours for repairs to the central reservation.
Two men were arrested, one aged 37, on suspicion of conspiracy to supply class A drugs, the other, 43, on suspicion of driving under the influence of drugs.
A Leicestershire Police spokesman said: “The vehicle failed to stop but stopped a short time later after it was in a collision with the central reservation.”
He added: “One lane of the northbound carriageway was closed while the vehicle was when we account for the cost of food, business rates, energy, maintenance and replacement of equipment, the service breaks even.
“In a perfect world we do everything we can to keep the charges down in both our parking and food outlets.”
Notes on the hospital’s 2018/19 accounts statement said: “The trust undertakes income generation activities with an aim of achieving profit, which is then used in patient care.
“We provide retail catering services to patients and the public, and collect car parking income from our car parks. We record the associated full costs of these activities as they are absorbed into the overheads of the trust.”
A UHL spokesman added: “We make sure it is free for disabled users parking in the allocated spaces, free for people on certain benefits and heavily discounted for people who need to come to us frequently.” recovered.” The Highways Agency East Midlands reported delays of around half an hour above normal journey times.
A spokeswoman for the agency said at the time: “Emergency repairs are being carried out to the central reservation barrier and the outside lanes in both directions are closed.”
Police said both lanes were fully reopened shortly after 5pm on Wednesday.
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