Hospital car parking fees: Patients and staff hit with £1 billion bombshell

EMBARGO: 00.01 Friday 27th December

• Staff, patients, and visitors have paid £1.15 billion in car parking charges since 2018/19
• Some NHS trusts have received over £35 million in car parking fees over six years
• Lib Dems call on government to tackle this “tax on the sick and on hard-working NHS staff”

Patients, visitors and staff have faced a £1 billion bombshell of hospital car parking charges over the past six years, new analysis by the LiberalDemocrats has revealed.

It comes despite the previous Conservative government’s 2019 manifesto pledge to “end unfair hospital car parking charges”.

The research shows that NHS trusts have received a staggering £1.15 billion in car parking charges since 2018/19. Of this, NHS staff have paid out more than £300 million, while patients and visitors have paid out £847 million.

Hospital car parking fees amounted to £243m in 2023/24, up from £192.5m the previous year. This amounts to an average of £665,000 a day in hospital car parking charges over the past year.

The data also shows some trusts have taken home staggering amounts of money from car parking charges in the past six years. At University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire, more than £37.3 million has been collected in car parking fees, followed by University Hospitals Birmingham with £25.2 million and Manchester University NHS Trust with £23.9 million.

The Liberal Democrats said it was a “tax on the sick” and called on the government to work with NHS trusts to reduce fees for visitors and staff. The Party is calling for a dedicated ‘Visiting and Caring Fund’ to ensure that no one is shelling out unfair sums to visit their loved ones, and to support NHS staff with parking charges.

Liberal Democrat Care spokesperson, Alison Bennett MP said:

“Patients and staff are being hit with a one billion bombshell of hospital car parking charges. This is an unfair tax on the sick and on hard-working NHS staff and it has to stop.

“It cannot be right that nurses have to pay through the nose to get to work or that patients are subjected to sky-high fees to get treatment they desperately need.

“The Conservatives promised to crack down on unfair hospital car parking charges but failed miserably.

“The new government must now work urgently to stamp out these unfair fees and back our calls for a new Visitors and Caring Fund.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

Liberal Democrat analysis of NHS car parking charges can be found here.

Source: NHS Digital, Estates Returns Information Collection (2018/19 to 2023/24).