HOSPITALS are criticised today for making millions of pounds from a captive market of NHS patients and their visitors through exorbitant car park and telephone charges.

NHS hospitals make £78 million a year from parking fees — £63 million from patients and visitors and £15 million from their own staff. Many charge the full rate for cancer sufferers who have to make daily visits, MPs on the health select committee found.

Parking rates vary from 30p to £4 an hour and 24-hour stays cost up to £30. The NCP short-stay car park at Gatwick costs £3.70 an hour while drivers can park for £4 a day at Alton Towers.

Relatives who cannot afford to travel or park are charged up to 49p a minute to call patients’ bedside telephones while mobiles remain banned by most hospitals.

MPs want a rethink of the ban on mobile phones for patients and complete review of the NHS’s hidden charges which they describe as a complete mess.

Costs for dentistry, eye tests,and prescriptions are full of anomalies and have grown without any underlying principles, the MPs say in a hard-hitting report. Kevin Barron, the committee chairman, said: “The system of NHS charges needs to change, but . . . there is a woeful absence of evidence about the effects of charges.

“In the short term, parking fees should be reduced or eliminated altogether for patients attending hospital regularly. It is unacceptable that people have to pay hundreds of pounds to attend for necessary treatment.”

While the average hospital parking space makes £200 a year, spaces at Southend, Good Hope in Sutton Coldfield, Luton, Frimley Park in Surrey and Epsom made £2,000 a year. Most NHS trusts generate a quarter of 1 per cent of their budget from parking income but some make more than 1 per cent.

Macmillan, the cancer relief charity, found that 92 per cent of English hospitals charged patients for parking compared with 53 per cent in Wales, 20 per cent in Northern Ireland and 6 per cent in Scotland.

Just 41 per cent of hospitals that charge waive fees for cancer sufferers who might have to attend every day.

Peter Cardy, Macmillan’s chief executive, said: “It is unacceptable for patients to pay hundreds of pounds in parking charges to attend hospital so the committee’s recommendation for reduced, or free, parking charges is great news.

“We believe the Government must act now and introduce clear, enforceable regulations to ensure free parking for all cancer patients who have to visit hospital regularly for treatment. Macmillan found the average cancer patient makes 53 trips to hospital during the course of their treatment, and the average cost of parking per hospital visit was £3.87, with one in six paying between £3 and £5 for each trip.

“Cancer treatment involves a lot of expensive machinery – a hospital parking meter should not be one of them.”

MPs are also demanding immediate action to cut phone costs for relatives. They said: “Incoming calls are a source of anger and distress. They are charged at a very high rate, up to 49p per minute. A recorded message, which cannot be skipped, makes them even more expensive.” They added: “We did not receive any evidence that mobile telephones interfere with the operation of medical equipment.”

The MPs recommend a full review of the cost and benefits of abolishing all existing NHS charges, as well as simply scrapping the prescription charge.

The system of medical exemptions to the prescription charge is described as particularly confusing. They conclude: “(It) was compiled in 1968 and has not changed. Given the vast improvements in medical science since that time, this is unacceptable.”

The MPs added: “We need to know the extent to which charges deter patients from seeking medical, dental or opthalmic help.”

They said it was unacceptable that a third of opticians did not sell glasses within the NHS voucher value. They also want to see the reintroduction of eye tests for all young children and increased efforts to target people at risk of eye disease.

They added that charges could be used to promote more responsible use of NHS services, for example by fining patients who miss appointments or charging a small fee when patients attend accident and emergency departments for non-urgent treatment.

MOST EXPENSIVE

Average fee per hour for patient/visitor parking:

1 North Hampshire Hospitals NHS Trust £4.35

2 Wirral Hospital NHS Trust £4

3= Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust £3

3= Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust £3

3= Barnet Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust £3

3= Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals NHS Trust £3

7= West Middlesex University NHS Trust £2.80

7= Chelsea and Westminster Healthcare NHS Trust £2.80

9= Luton and Dunstable Hospital NHS Trust £2.50

9= West Herfordshire NHS Trust £2.50

9= Medway NHS Trust £2.50

Source: NHS car parking statistics 2004-05

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