Fury as greedy hike in hospital parking leaves patients & staff sick to their stomachs
FURIOUS staff, patients and visitors face paying hundreds of pounds more a year for parking at NHS hospitals.
They are being hammered despite some already forking out £1,000 annually to leave their cars.
The daily staff charge has gone up by 90p from £1.60 to £2.50 at Mount Vernon Hospital in North West London, part of the Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
One staff member said: “So many of us are already struggling so this is a real kick in the teeth. There’s a lot of anger and upset.”
Trust bosses said the increase from April is the first in seven years.
At Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals in Surrey a two-hour stay is up 12 per cent from £4 to £4.50.
At Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton, Somerset, the parking permit charge for staff has risen from £32 a month to £43.48 — or £521.80 a year — a hike of 27 per cent.
And at St Mary’s Hospital on the Isle of Wight fees went up in October from £1.40 for an hour to £1.50 and from £6.50 to £7 a day.
PM Rishi Sunak has refused to commit to free hospital parking for nurses.
Rachel Power, chief executive of the Patients Association, said: “We don’t support the use of hospital car parking charges, but understand they provide hospitals with much-needed funds.”