Morecambe Bay Hospitals Trust makes almost £1m in car parking charges

Figures from NHS England reveal University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust earned £1.4 million in car parking fees in the year to March.

Of this, £357,000 was from parking for staff, with the remaining £1 million for patients and visitors.

The data shows the trust also spent £488,000 on parking services over the same period, meaning in total it made £912,000 from parking.

Across England, NHS trusts made a net revenue of £165.6m from parking charges. This was from a total of £242.8m in car parking fees, after spending £77.2m to run parking services.

This included £70.5m charged to NHS staff.

GMB, a union which represents thousands of NHS staff, workers deserve better.

The union's national secretary, Rachel Harrison, said NHS workers have suffered "rocketing workloads, chronic understaffing and the fallout from a global pandemic".

She said: "Health workers are on their knees – they need help and support. Charging them to park is kicking them while they are down."

The GMB is calling on the Government and NHS employers to scrap staff car parking charges.

The figures also show there were 2,304 available parking spaces across the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay.

David Sanderson, director of estates and facilities, UHMBT, said: “Public parking charges at sites run by UHMBT were last year brought in line with parking charges set by local authorities

and other NHS Trusts.

“We believe that parking should not be seen as an income and that the cost of providing parking should not be subsidised from patient care budgets.

"Parking at UHMBT is priced to cover costs such as car park administration, management, barrier and pay machine maintenance, security including CCTV, gritting and other types of maintenance.

"Should there be any surplus, this will be reinvested in site operations and maintenance.

“We will continue to participate in local authority green initiatives, the promotion of car sharing, greater use of bicycles and local transport within the area, and other environmentally friendly schemes such as Lancaster City Council’s Park and Ride service.” 

Patricia Marquis, executive director for England of the Royal College of Nurses, said: "Nursing staff provide a vital public service and often work unsocial hours and in places where public transport is not always possible.

"They shouldn’t be forced to spend a significant portion of their wages just to park at work."

She added all staff should be able to access "safe, sustainable and affordable" transport, and urged employers and local authorities to work together on the issue.

NHS England said revenue from parking is put towards other services provided by trusts.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "Hospital car park charges are the responsibility of individual NHS trusts, however any charges must be reasonable and in line with the local area.

"Free parking is available for all NHS staff who work overnight."