Parking at a Birmingham hospital is one of the most expensive in the country - setting patients and visitors back an average of £2 an hour.

According to figures released by the Health and Social Care Information Centre, parking at Birmingham Children’s Hospital has doubled from an average of £1 an hour, in the past year.

Hospitals run by the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust, cost an average of £1.58 an hour.

Parking at Russells Hall was up 43 per cent from £1.07 an hour to £1.53, and the cost of parking at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital rose from £1.10 a hour to £1.33.

Patients can park for free at the Leasowes Intermediate Care Centre, the Parkview Clinic and West Park Hospital.

There are nine hospital sites in the Birmingham area that charge for disabled parking.

Birmingham Children’s Hospital is also the most expensive place for staff to park in the area, at an average of £2 per hour, up from 23p per hour in 2014/15, the biggest rise in price for staff parking in England.

Birmingham Women’s Hospital has upped parking charges for staff from 30p per hour to 44p per hour.

However, Russells Hall Hospital has cut staff parking charges from an average of 13p per hour to 4p per hour, and the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital has cut its from 13p per hour to 10p per hour.

A Birmingham Children’s Hospital spokeswoman said: “As a city centre hospital, we own and manage a limited number of spaces for patients and visitors to Birmingham Children’s Hospital.

“These 42 spaces, in Printing House Street, are offered to visitors on a first-come, first-served basis.

“However, if a child or young person has been an inpatient for more than 30 days, the parent can apply for one of our long term free parent parking passes, which removes the need to pay for daily parking. We have a range of support options in place for our resident parents so that they pay significantly reduced rates.

“Because we recognise the demand for car parking, we have also negotiated heavily-discounted daily rates with an external provider, the NCP Royal Angus, for parents and visitors. This means access to more car parking spaces than ever before, a total of 2,480 per day, with a space for every individual coming to Birmingham Children’s Hospital, should they need it.

Terrible parking in Birmingham

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“Where it is possible and appropriate, we do encourage all visitors to use the wide range of public transport available to travel to Birmingham Children’s Hospital.”

Out of 579 acute hospital trust sites across England, 305 charge patients for parking, and 303 charge staff to park.

Hereford Hospital, which has been judged inadequate by the Care Quality Commission, is the most expensive place to park as a patient, at an average of £3.50 per hour, while Royal Bolton Hospital is the cheapest of those that charge at an average of 13p per hour.