Hospital set to make £3million charging patients and relatives for parking

Recent fee increases have put Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge on course to take around £3million this year, which would be a record for an NHS trust. The hospital said any profit was being invested in patient care and improving car park safety.

'Tax on sickness': Addenbrooke's charges £3 for two hours' parking

But an undisclosed sum is going to the private parking firm NCP, which opened a £11.5million multi-storey car park at the hospital last month.

Parking charges were increased by as much as 36 per cent at the start of the new financial year. Visitors now pay £15 if they stay more than eight hours. Outpatients will pay £3 per day and staff £2.

LibDem health spokesman Norman Lamb has condemned the charges as a 'tax on sickness'.

'There is a case for car parking charges to cover costs but I have grave concerns it is being used as a cash cow to bring extra profit for the trust,' he said. 'There is a sense of profiteering from people who are a captive audience.'

A spokesman for the public sector union Unison added: 'It is immoral to be making vast amounts of money out of patients, visitors and staff who have little choice but to use car parks.

'Many nurses and other hospital staff have to work shifts so using public transport is not always an option. The same is true of people who are visiting or going to hospital.'

NCP: The firm opened a £11.5million multi-storey car park at the hospital last month

She added: 'Hospital care is supposed to be funded by the Government and raising charges this way is unacceptable.'

Michael Summers, of the Patients Association, said: 'It is disgraceful that hospitals feel they can make money out of patients, their families and staff. They pay companies vast fees, instead of organising it in a way that savings could be made.'

Visitors to Addenbrooke's, which has around 3,000 parking bays, were previously charged £2.50 for every two hours. A top rate of £12.50 was applied for stays of more than eight hours.

Now a one-hour band costing £1.80 has been introduced, while two hours' parking costs £3. A further £3 is charged for every extra two-hour period, up to a maximum £15 for more than eight hours.

A weekly concession ticket for regular patients, including those being treated for cancer, went up by 36 per cent to £3.

The hospital made £159,344 from patients and visitors in April and a further £88,979 from staff  -  equivalent to £2.98million annually.

Earlier this year, it emerged that at least 30 trusts made £1million each from parking charges in the year 2006-07.

Southampton University brought in the most, with £2.4million, while Cambridge University Hospitals Trust, which runs Addenbrooke's, was second with £2.3million.

Addenbrooke's has refused to say how much NCP makes from the contract, citing 'commercial interests'.

A spokesman said: 'The income generated from car parking charges allows us to provide a high-quality parking service for people who really need it.'