FEARS have been raised that patients, visitors and even staff from Montgomeryshire are contributing to more than £2 million that was made by Shropshire hospitals from car parking charges last year.
NHS Digital data shows Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust made around £2.2 million through parking charges and penalty fines in the year to March 2020.
Of that, £1.5 million was paid by patients and visitors, while £705,903 was raked in through hospitals charging their own staff to park.
Shropshire hospitals serve the majority of Montgomeryshire’s residents – with many Powys residents in the north of the county visiting centres like the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital in Oswestry and the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.
The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust has hit back at the revelations though, insisting that money raised by car parking charges in reinvested directly into patient care, while confirming that parking charges for staff were suspended at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic and remain so.
Montgomeryshire Liberal Democrat Senedd candidate Alison Alexander has called for unfair hospital parking charges to be scrapped.
“Hospital parking charges are deeply unfair,” said Ms Alexander.
“They are effectively a tax on the sick and the staff who strive so hard to care for them. In particular, they add unnecessary stress and unaffordable expense to people with long-term illnesses who are already struggling.
“While for people who live closer to Shropshire’s hospitals may find it easier to use public transport to access hospitals, this simply isn’t the case for most Montgomeryshire residents or those from rural parts of Shropshire. This is especially true for the NHS staff that travel from Montgomeryshire to work in Shropshire’s hospitals.”
“Shropshire and Montgomeryshire’s Conservative MPs should be using their positions to lobby the UK Government to scrap hospital parking fees once and for all, following in the footsteps of the Welsh Government in 2018.”
Parking charges were suspended briefly at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, paid for by the Department of Health and Social Care. Many trusts reinstated them last summer. At Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust and at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital staff can currently park for free and there is a mixture of charges, exemptions and discounts in place for the public.
A spokesperson for The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust said: “Money raised by car parking charges in reinvested directly into patient care.
“Parking charges for our staff were suspended near the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic and remain so.
“Members of the public are able to park for up to 20 minutes for free if they are dropping off or collecting patients. Patients receiving dialysis, radiotherapy or chemotherapy, and people visiting hospital for issues connected with bereavement, can park for free.
“Anyone needing to attend hospital regularly can buy a discounted 10-visit ticket which is valid for three months and has no time restrictions or limits; whilst patients on low incomes, who are in receipt of benefits, can also claim back the cost of their parking.”
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