Warwick Hospital rakes in more than £700,000 in car parking in just one year

MORE than £700,000 was raked in by Warwick Hospital in car parking charges in just one year.

Figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats – under the Freedom of Information Act – revealed the hospital made £599,253 from visitors, and a further £103,952 from staff, bringing the total to £703,205 in 2007/08.

A spokesman for Warwick Hospital said: “The charges for the patient’s car park have not increased in over three years.”

She said the car park must be self-financing: “As we would never spend money
dedicated for patient care to subsidise it.

“Therefore we will be increasing the cost to park for longer periods.

“Around 50 per cent of our visitors and patients stay for less than one hour, and only just over five per cent stay within the time bands that we have increased. So, for 95 per cent of people these changes represent a reduction, or a freeze.

“Our evidence is that the people who use the car park for such extended periods of time are not associated with the hospital; they are not visitors, or outpatients, and inpatients usually should not be driving from the site for medical reasons.

“We know for example that people have parked at the hospital as a cheaper option than all day parking at Warwick train station. If any patients do need to visit on a regular basis, then we offer a concessionary £15 weekly ticket.

“There is currently no room to reduce these charges further, due to the money being used to maintain and secure the car park.”

The new charges mean parking is free for the first 15 minutes. Those staying up to an hour will be charged £2.50, and people staying between six and 24 hours will be charged £9. Hospitals across the UK have been accused of slapping a “tax on the sick,” after the figures revealed the amount collected by hospitals, nationally, soared to £111 million in 2007/08 – up from £102 million the year before.

Norman Lamb, Liberal Democrat shadow Health Secretary, who was behind the research, said: “This is a staggering amount of money for the NHS to be making from car parking charges.

“Many hospitals are still not offering real discounts to those with chronic illnesses and are effectively operating ‘a tax on the sick.’

“No one is denying the need for hospitals to cover their costs, but that doesn’t mean they can use hidden charges to help themselves out of financial black holes. We need an urgent review into whether hardworking doctors and nurses, and the chronically ill, should be paying these charges at all.”