A Birmingham hospital trust has topped the league for car parking income.

The Bordesley Green-based Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust made £4,841,108 in the last year.

This included £3,465,357 from patients and visitors and £1,375,751 from staff. Almost £40,000 was collected by the trust in car park fines.

Hospitals within the Trust include Birmingham Heartlands, Solihull, Good Hope and Birmingham Chest Clinic.

Good Hope hospital, in Sutton Coldfield

New national data shows that NHS hospitals are making more money than ever from car park charges, with more than half charging disabled visitors and making thousands every year in fines.

Hospitals across England made more than £120 million from charging patients, staff and visitors for parking in the last year, up five five per cent on the year before and rising year on year, according to information collected by the Press Association.

Some 120 NHS trusts across England were asked to give figures on parking charges and fines under the Freedom of Information Act, with 89 providing responses.

Birmingham Heartlands Hospital
Birmingham Heartlands Hospital

Overall, NHS trusts netted £120,662,650 in 2015/16 in car park charges, up from £114,873,867 the year before, the study found.

Some 27 trusts provided data on parking fines, showing they made £2,300,208 in fines over a four year period. In 2015/16 alone, £635,387 was made from fining patients, visitors and staff on hospital grounds.

The investigation also found that almost half of all NHS trusts charge disabled people for parking in some or all of their disabled spaces.

Parking at Good Hope Hospital
Parking at Good Hope Hospital

More than half of trusts who responded to the FOI request are making more than £1 million in car park fees every year, with some also handing money to private firms.

A Heart of England NHS Trust spokesman said: “We are a large trust covering three hospital sites with 11,000 staff. We see over one million patients and a similar amount of visitors and relatives each year.

"The Trust does not take any form of profit from car parking charges as the funds are used to fund capital charges, utility costs, security and car parking management services, as well as the upkeep, maintenance and investment in the car parks which includes CCTV systems, grounds, and road safety.

“We recognise that parking charges can be a very significant financial burden for some and so we offer discounts to anyone visiting our hospitals for more than one day, giving frequent visitors greater savings, and free car parking to those in receipt of income-related benefits.

"We also offer a wide range of discounted multiple day tickets, including passes for those attending on a regular basis to particular wards.”

Others claimed their sheer size and the fact that they served busy neighbourhoods meant they took more in revenue.

Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham.

But Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, said:“The shocking reality about car parking charges is that they are taking money from the sick and vulnerable to top up NHS coffers.

“This is not what car parking charges should be used for.

“The NHS is clearly underfunded, but the onus on meeting the funding crisis should most certainly not be shouldered by the sick, injured and vulnerable.

“We are not talking about insignificant amounts of money, either. It is alarming that trusts think it is okay to charge people so much money for visiting a hospital, as it makes patients question the values of the people leading the organisation.

“We take a very clear line that car parking fees need to be scrapped or strictly capped.”

Ms Murphy said it was important that drivers parked sensibly but said fines were a burden on the sick.

She added: “It is not right that fines should be so heavy handed on sick and disabled patients.”

It was also unfair that hospital parking in Wales and Scotland was largely free but that patients in England were still forced to pay.

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Shadow community health minister Julie Cooper said: “These new figures reinforce the worrying trend that hospitals across England are increasing hospital car parking charges and making record amounts of money.

“Raising car parking charges has a knock on effect on patients, carers and family members who have no choice but to pay.

“The current situation is wholly unfair and will only cause more stress for patients, families and carers.

“Hospitals cannot justify increasing car parking charges nor can half of all NHS trusts justify charging disabled people for parking.

“The Government urgently needs to address this situation and take steps to cap the amount hospitals can charge for car parking fees.”

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Rosie Downes, campaigns manager at Macmillan Cancer Support, said: “The last thing that somebody going through cancer treatment should be doing is worrying about whether there is enough money in the parking meter.

“Cancer can have a huge impact on someone’s finances, and paying for hours of parking at hospital each week is a completely unacceptable expense at such a hard time.

“Government guidance is very clear that cancer patients in England should not continue to pay unfair hospital parking charges.

“Hospitals must start adopting these guidelines as a matter of urgency.”

In October, a Press Association investigation revealed that a third of hospital trusts in England had increased their car parking charges in the last year.

The most expensive trust in the country for a one-hour stay was the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford, where patients are forced to pay £4 for any stay up to two hours. It does have a few bays where people can park for 20 minutes before being charged.