Parking charges at city hospital raise £2 million

Visitors to the hospital in the 2016/17 financial year paid more than £1.3 million, with staff also paying £650,000.

The total is £120,000 more than the money brought in the previous year.

The hospital also began issuing £50 fines from last April (£25 if paid within a fortnight) for people blocking ambulance access routes and parking on double yellow lines or in a disabled bay without a blue badge. At the time of going to press the North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Peterborough City, Stamford and Hinchingbrooke hospitals, had been unable to say how much had been raised from fines so far.

Eric Fehily, the trust’s director of estates and facilities, said: “We regularly review our car parking charges and benchmark our charges against those at other hospitals in the region.

“We have to ensure the charge covers the cost of providing the facility for car parking spaces on the Peterborough City Hospital site and does not come out of money allocated for healthcare. This includes disabled spaces which are free to use for blue badge holders at present.

“The trust also provides free car parking for visitors to the Bereavement Centre and patients with a long-term illness or a serious condition that needs regular treatment such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy and haemodialysis.”

It costs £2.60 to park from 30 minutes to three hours 30 minutes at the hospital, but reduced rates are offered in several circumstances, including for the main visitor to a critically or terminally ill patient, and relatives visiting a patient on a daily basis for longer than a week.

Visitors to Stamford Hospital can park there for free, but the trust is currently reviewing that policy.

Just over £1 million was raised from parking charges at Hinchingbrooke in 2016/17.

And in the 13 months from the start of September 2016 the hospital received £13,640 in parking fines from members of staff. At present it does not issue parking charge notices to members of the public.