The North Cumbria Integrated Care Trust (NCIC) earned almost £1 million from parking fees last year, new figures show.

Hospitals across England received more than £190 million from charging visitors and staff to use their car parks.

The GMB union called on the Government to enforce a blanket ban on NHS staff car parking charges.

NCIC have said that the money raised by parking charges is spent on services provided by the health service – including car parking and that the maximum charge for a member of staff to park at work is £18.75 a month.

NCIC also said that there is concessions for visitors who are visiting patients at the end of their life, visiting children and for people with regular outpatient appointments.

Latest NHS England figures show NCIC earned £994,000 from parking charges in 2023 – up from £228,000 the year before.

This was made up of a combination of £333,000 from visitors, and £661,000 from staff.

The figures represent the gross income earned by the NHS and do not consider its own costs for providing car parking.

Nationally, there were more than 446,000 parking spaces available at NHS facilities, a decline of 3 per cent on last year.

Of these, 3,567 were available across all sites across NCIC, including the Cumberland Infirmary and the West Cumberland Hospital, which is the same as in 2022.

Rachel Harrison, GMB officer, said NHS workers have been "hammered by pay cuts, the pandemic and chronic understaffing", and called on ministers to enforce a blanket ban on NHS staff parking charges.

She added: "Of course trusts are short of cash after years of underfunding - but the money they claw back from charging staff to park is a drop in the ocean, while it can mean the difference between getting by and going under for hard-pressed staff."

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A spokesperson for NCIC said: “In line with the vast majority of NHS trusts we have parking charges for staff and visitors.

“There are concessions for visitors who are visiting patients at the end of their life, for patients with a regular outpatient appointments, cancer patients and for parents visiting children on our children’s wards. There is also free parking for blue badge holders.

“As of April 2024, we have reviewed our staff parking permit charges to make it fairer for part time staff. The maximum charge is £18.75 a month for full time staff. 

“The revenue for parking received by the Trust is spent on services provided by NCIC including on car park provision.”