Hospitals Trust made millions of pounds from parking charges

Income from parking increased by 21% from £2.2 million a year earlier. Photo: Richard Ponter

placeholder image — Income from parking increased by 21% from £2.2 million a year earlier. Photo: Richard Ponter

York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals Trust made millions of pounds in profit from charging patients and staff to park in the year to March, new figures show.

The GMB union, which represents many NHS staff, said it was "perverse and grotesque" to force them to pay to park at work.

New figures released by NHS England show York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust received around £2.7 million from parking charges across its various sites.

This was made up of £2.3 million from charging patients and visitors, and £427,000 from staff.

The NHS trust's income from parking increased by 21% from £2.2 million a year earlier.

Across England, trusts received £271 million from parking charges, a 12% increase on 2023-24.

At York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals Trust, income from parking increased by 21% from £2.2 million a year earlier.

Brian Morton, associate director for employment relations at the Royal College of Nursing, said: "For nursing staff, the cost of parking takes too much of their pay.

"Staff are having to pay to park at work and can even be hit with fines when they stay late caring for their patients. This simply cannot be right.

"Staff work around the clock to be there for their patients – and working odd shift times, means using public transport is not always possible.

"Trust leaders must do more to provide free parking for staff and not leave them out of pocket just for coming to work."

The data also shows the cost of administering NHS car parks rose by 9%, a slower rate than the income they generated.

Nationally, the NHS spent £84 million administering parking, giving it a total net income of £187 million.

Managing parking cost York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals Trust a total of £411,000, meaning overall it gave it a net income of £2.3 million.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said local trusts are responsible for car parking space numbers, rates for parking and charging methods, but all parking charges should be “reasonable for the local area”.

They added: “Free parking is available for those in greatest need, including all NHS staff who work overnight.

“While hospital car park charges are the responsibility of individual NHS trusts, we expect all charges to be reasonable and in line with the local area.”