THE NHS trust covering mid and south Essex received more than £2.7million from visitor and patients car parking in the last year.

The Mid and South Essex NHS Trust received a total of £2,750,208 from car parking charges, making it the trust with the fifth highest income from visitor parking charges.

Andrew Pike, chief operating officer for Mid and South Essex NHS Trust, said: “With three large main hospital sites and several smaller satellite sites, we have one of the largest NHS trusts in the country, which means a greater number of beds, patients and hospital car parking spaces.
 

Braintree and Witham Times: Limited - The NHS website describes the parking at St Michael’s Health Centre Braintree as extremely limited with standard and disabled bays available Limited - The NHS website describes the parking at St Michael’s Health Centre Braintree as extremely limited with standard and disabled bays available (Image: Google)

“Income from our patient parking charges is reinvested into the running and maintenance of our car parks, with any surplus going towards the running of the trust.

The trust received no income income from staff parking charges, the same as 98 of the 201 trusts with available figures.

In comparison, East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Trust, which runs Colchester and Ipswich hospitals, received an annual total of £2,525,138, ranking it eighth  in visitor car parking, and another £120,595 from hospital staff in the 2022/23 year.

While Essex University Partnership recorded a total of £0 of gross annual income for staff as well as patients and visitors parking, the same as 61 other NHS trusts.

The Mid and South Essex Trust had wanted to reintroduce staff parking charges last year following the pandemic. The Government stopped its financial support for NHS staff parking on April 1, 2022.

However, in July 2022, hospital bosses told UNISON that it would put the brakes on staff charges, following a signed petition by more than 3,000 staff at the trust.

Nationally, visitors and patients spent £146million for parking in 2022/23 – the equivalent of £400,000 every day – nearly double the £96.7million last year’s figure and triple the figures from two years ago.

Hospital staff car parking figures also increased eight-fold from £5.6m in 2021/22 to £46.7m in 2022/23.

The reason for the marked increased in figures is partly due to the parking charges being reintroduced after the Covid-19 pandemic, with gross income still being below pre-pandemic levels.

Readers were divided over being charged to park at hospitals.

Sue Hall called the charge to visitors an "illness tax" and said: "A flat rate of £2 would still make them a lot of money."

Tom Hamilton said that it was "no bother" if the money went back to provide care, adding  that "public bodies are struggling and have for years". 

Marie Smith said charges were a "total disgrace" and criticised the system for "taking advantage of people at a vulnerable time".