Hospital car park charges up by as much as 200%!

Getting ill is getting ever more costly, with almost one in three hospitals ramping up their car park charges.

Almost one in three hospital trusts in England have increased parking fees for patients and visitors, with one trust ramping up fees by 200%.

Last year hospital trusts came under fire for their parking charges after the NHS in England confirmed that total profits from parking jumped 14% to a whopping £32 million. However, the vitriol that figure sparked was not enough to convince many trusts to act on the spiralling cost of parking at the hospital.

Indeed, a paltry 16% of trusts cut their prices over the past year, compared to 28% who increased charges, according to research by SSentif, which spoke to 197 trusts.

The biggest rises

So which trusts have tabled the biggest rises? Below are the eleven trusts who have increased prices by at least 50%.

*Average charge per hour for parking within the grounds for a three-hour period.

Given that the national average for an hour’s parking is now 77p, a few of the trusts highlighted in the table above are still not the worst offenders, despite increasing their costs significantly.

However, Airedale NHS Foundation slapped on a 150% price increase at Airedale General Hospital, making it the most expensive hospital car park in the country, charging more than three times the national average.

Free parking

Of course, not all trusts are cashing in on sickness by ratcheting up the costs of parking in their hospitals. Indeed, two trusts – East Kent Hospitals University and Nottinghamshire Healthcare – have stopped charging altogether. They follow Trafford Healthcare NHS Trust, which led the way in ditching car parking fees in early 2011.

Here are the 12 trusts that cut their charges by at least 50%:

*Average charge per hour for parking within the grounds for a three-hour period.

Why are we charged for being sick?

It strikes me that cashing in on someone’s misfortune in being sick or injured is a bit… well, sick. Nobody wants to spend their time in hospital. But sometimes you have to, and surely if we are to have a health service that is free at the point of delivery, that should extend to parking as well?

After all, hospitals in Wales and Scotland don’t charge for parking. Why are things different in England?

And even if you do absolutely have to charge, how can trusts defend the massive variances in the amount they charge? Devon Partnership manages to get by charging 14p an hour, while Airedale wants £2.50 an hour. Is the cost of providing car parking spaces that much higher in Yorkshire than Devon that Airedale needs to charge almost 18 times more?

What do you think? Should we pay for hospital parking? Should there be a cap on charges? Or should it be free for everyone?

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