Hospital car parking charges for patients staying in hospital and their visitors are to be phased out in England, the Government has announced.

The NHS in England earns nearly £112 million from car parking fees each year, which ministers have previously defended as necessary to cover running costs and promote the use of public transport to and from hospital.

But Andy Burnham, the Health Secretary, promised that if his party won the next election, the charges would be abolished over three years for patients staying overnight.

Hospital inpatients would instead be given a permit for the length of their stay in hospital that their family and friends could also use.

“When people are coming in to hospital, the last thing they want to worry about is keeping the car parking ticket up-to-date,” Mr Burnham told the Labour Party Conference in Brighton today. “But, for families of the sickest patients, the costs can really rack up.”

Mr Burnham described the policy as “a move symbolic of an NHS at all times on the side of ordinary people”.

He added: “It’s not right if some people don’t get visitors every day because families can't afford the parking fees. And yet we all know that having friends and family around helps patients get better more quickly.”

But campaigners said that the pledge did not go far enough — as it would not cover patients with conditions such as cancer, who may need to attend hospital regularly for tests or treatment but might not stay overnight.

Car parking charges are a significant source of revenue for the NHS, with some hospitals deriving more than 1 per cent of their budget from them. The level of fees is controlled individually by each trust.

Ministers have previously ruled out any cuts to car parking in England, claiming that reducing fees for staff and the public would not be a sensible use of limited resources.

But doctors and patients’ groups have argued that the charges are morally wrong if they are used to subsidise services that are already funded by the taxpayer.

Ciarán Devane, chief executive of Macmillan Cancer Support, said: “We applaud the Government for recognising the high cost to families visiting relatives in hospitals, but are disappointed that they have ignored the same high cost of parking charges to those cancer patients having treatment as out-patients.”

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