Patients paying millions to park at hospital (From Daily Echo)

Patients paying millions to park at Southampton General Hospital

9:49am Wednesday 17th March 2010 in Southampton By James Maden, News and Video Reporter

HOSPITAL bosses have come under fire for the amount of money they make from car parking. Current charges mean that a space costs £1.80 while a ticket for up to six hours is £6.50.

Last year alone patients paid out £2m in parking fees – the third highest figure of any hospital trust in the country.

Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust, responsible for running Southampton General and Princess Anne Hospitals, was also found to have made the biggest profit margin from patient parking fees over three years – £1.39m – in a survey carried out by consumer group Which.

Angry hospital workers have already warned that more people will continue to park in the nearest available residential roads if new increased staff parking charges are introduced.

All staff currently pay a flat fee of £20 a month to park at Southampton General and Princess Anne Hospitals but bosses want to introduce a new system that links the cost of a parking permit to staff salaries so lower earners pay less and bigger earners pay more. It would mean staff earning less than £21,318 would pay £15 per month while those earning above £63,237 would pay £60 a month. Those in between would pay monthly fees of between £30 or £45.

Bosses also want to build a new 700 space staff multi-storey car park on the site of the former laundry funded by the extra £1m they hope to receive in increased parking charges. They hope this will free up the 200 spaces used by staff in the main visitor multi-storey car park.

The trust is also looking at developing a new park and ride service for staff from this August that could eventually be extended to patients and visitors.

A spokesman for Southampton General Hospital said: “Accommodating the number of staff, patients and visitors who would like to park on our site continues to be a challenge for our trust.

“We have developed a transport strategy, are looking seriously into a number of options and have been consulting our staff.

Possible options include the building of a multi-storey car park and further developing an additional park and ride system that would help ease pressure on visitor parking and reduce overspill.

“The trust is also reviewing its travel plans, with the support of Southampton City Council, to promote alternative methods of travel to and from the hospital.”