Leeds hospital bosses defend cost of parking

It costs £2.90 to park for an hour at St James’s University Hospital in Leeds, while drivers elsewhere in the country fork out up to £4 for a 60-minute stay.

Also among the costliest places to park in the NHS is Airedale Hospital, near Keighley, at £3 per hour.

Airedale is on a list of 53 hospitals in England which increased parking charges for staff and visitors in the last financial year.

A stay of four to 24 hours cost £8 in 2017-18, up from £3.50 the year before.

A stay of two to four hours now costs £5, up from £3. The trust made £1,287,322 from parking in 2017-18.

Nobody at Airedale was available to comment yesterday.

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust pointed out that parking charges help pay for security costs, lighting and maintenance.

A spokesman said: “As our hospitals are very close to the city centre, our rates are set in line with surrounding car parks otherwise they would become full very quickly with people parking to go into town or work.

“This would leave fewer spaces for patients and visitors needing to come into hospital.”

Some patients, including those having cancer treatment and parents of children staying in hospital overnight, qualify for parking exemptions, the trust added.

Some 124 NHS trusts responded freedom of information requests for data on parking charges.

Of these, 43 per cent said they had increased parking prices in the last year for visitors or staff, or both.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “We have made it very clear that patients, their families and our hardworking staff should not be subjected to unfair parking charges.

“NHS trusts are responsible for these charges and ensuring revenue goes back into frontline services, and we want to see trusts coming up with options that put staff, patients and their families first.”