Milton Keynes University Hospital earns over £1million from hospital parking charges​​​​​​​

Milton Keynes University Hospital earned more than £1million from parking fees last year, new figures show.

Hospitals across England received over £190 million from charging visitors and staff to use their car parks with the GMB union calling on the Government to enforce a blanket ban on NHS staff car parking charges.

Latest NHS England figures show Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust earned £1.4 million from parking charges in 2023 – up from £1.1 million the year before.

This was made up of a combination of £1.4 million from visitors, and £20,500 from staff.

The figures represent the gross income earned by the NHS and do not consider its own costs for providing car parking.

Nationally, there were over 446,000 parking spaces available at NHS facilities, a decline of 3% on last year.

Of these, 2,089 were available across all sites at Milton Keynes University Hospital, fewer than in 2022 – when there were 2,174.

Rachel Harrison, GMB national officer, said NHS workers have been "hammered by pay cuts, the pandemic and chronic understaffing", and called for a blanket ban on NHS staff parking charges.

She added: "Trusts are short of cash after years of underfunding - but the money they claw back from charging staff to park is a drop in the ocean, while it can mean the difference between getting by and going under for hard-pressed staff."

The Liberal Democrats have called the fees a "tax on caring", and said the Conservatives were failing to deliver on a manifesto promise to crack down on unfair hospital car parking fees.

The party also warned the Government’s failure to properly fund local health services could lead to hospitals hiking parking charges.

Lib Dem health and social care spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said: "It is unthinkable that Rishi Sunak is slashing NHS funding when hospitals are already on the brink.

"This will just make the cash crisis facing local health services even worse, forcing them to make more impossible choices in the years ahead."

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said parking charges are needed to help manage capacity at NHS sites, and the fees charged must not be "significantly more than other hospitals in the local area".