Lancashire's Hospital Car Parking scandal revealed

In April 2017, Lancashire Teaching NHS Hospital Trust had a surplus from car parking charges of over £1 million. Yet a few months later the same hospital trust vastly increased car parking charges and also started charging disabled to park at their hospitals in Chorley and Preston.

In the same tax year, health Trusts in Lancashire and South Cumbria raked in over £5.1m in parking fees.

In the last financial year (2016/17) it was revealed NHS hospitals in England made £174m from charging patients, visitors and staff for parking.

The biggest profits in Lancashire came from the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust which runs Royal Preston and Chorley and South Ribble hospitals. It collected a record £2,263,000 in 2016/17. Parking fines (charges) amounted to £7,920.

Unnecessary increases  - a scandal

The Chief Executive of the Lancashire Hospitals Trust Karen Partington back in December last year claimed that car park management, maintenance and security, cost nearly £1m per year.

So if this is the case, with a surplus £1,263,000 in April 2016/17 why did her trust board agree to increase parking charges further in July 2017 - as well as starting to charge the disabled?

WHY?

Not content with making £millions off the backs of the sick and poor, the Lancashire Teaching hospital trust then went ahead and vastly increased their parking charges and started charging disabled people to park in hospital grounds.

Even with an excess profit surplus from car parking charges of over £1m, the Hospital trusts new 'tariff' shows that in one case charges were actually doubled.

Subsidising the NHS budget?
Karen Partington, Chief Executive of Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation stated “We [hospital trust] apply charges because we do not believe the cost of providing safe and secure carparks should be funded by budgets intended for patient care and treatment. The charges fund hospital car park management, maintenance and security, which cost nearly £1m per year. Any surplus is reinvested in patient care and providing hospital services.”

So the question that needs putting to the Chief Executive of the Lancashire teaching hospital trust is: If your trust are profiting with a huge car parking surplus off the backs of the sick and poor, what's to say your trust aren't doing the same with other schemes?

Setting a precedent

Worst of all, due to the apparent greed of the Lancashire teaching hospital trust, the car parking management company have had to recommend an across the board increase to the other hospital trusts they provide facilities to.

i.e. the decision by the Lancashire teaching hospitals trust to ramp up car parking charges  has had a knock on affect across all hospitals in Lancashire.

The Department of Health issued a statement saying: "Patients and families should not have to deal with the added stress of complex and unfair parking charges. NHS organisations are locally responsible for the methods used to charge, and we want to see them coming up with flexible options that put patients and their families first."

• Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust raised £1,662,000 in parking fees in 2016/17. East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, which has a PFI (Private Finance Initiative) contracted out service, said it gained £100,021 in fees in both 2016/17 and 2015/16. In 2015/16 Lancashire Teaching Hospital Trust’s “income” from parking fees was £2,218,000, with £11,100 gathered in parking fines (charges).

Wigan Council was left with an £829,000 kitty from surplus parking revenue in a 12-month period, new figures have revealed.

Campaign group 'Protect Chorley Hospital from Cuts & Privatisation' have been lobbying the Lancashire hospital trust to rethink the disgraceful decision to charge the disabled and bring the car parking charges down or remove them altogether.

A petition is currently being circulated, for more information please visit the campaign media facebook group here.