THE Taunton And Somerset NHS Foundation Trust made more than half a million pounds by charging staff for parking last year, it has been revealed.

Figures released by the NHS show the trust raked in £513,360 in the year to March from charges and penalty fines incurred by NHS workers parking across all its sites.

The figures also reveal the trust made a further £1.9 million from parking charges paid by patients and visitors to its sites in the same financial year.

This brought their total income from car parking to £2.4 million.

The Trust says charges are necessary on the Taunton site to pay for the building of the multi-storey, through a contract with Q-Park, and that any 'excess funds' are 'put into clinical services'.

Across England, NHS trusts made a combined total of almost £70 million from staff parking charges.

The figures come in the week West Bagborough man Paul Gaunce launched a petition against charges for those visiting the hospital for treatment.

Unite, a union which represents around 100,000 health workers, has slammed the "scandalous" figures, which it said amounted to a "tax on hard-pressed" employees.

Sarah Carpenter, national officer for health at Unite, said: "It is a scandal that NHS trusts in England have pocketed nearly £70m from staff car parking charges.

"Such a large figure will take a large chunk out of the gains in the current NHS pay package which saw most staff get a pay rise of 6.5% over the next three years.

"This pernicious trend is replicated by financially squeezed trusts across England - our members are being used as an extra income stream for these trusts.

"We would like a situation where dedicated NHS staff, who don't earn a fortune, don't have to pay to park their cars to go to work to look after the sick, the vulnerable and the injured 365 days a year."

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Simon Rigby, associate director of estates and facilities at Musgrove Park Hospital, said: “Musgrove Park Hospital’s site simply does not have the space capacity to provide enough parking on site for all of our staff, patients and visitors.

“While we have a system in place for staff parking permits which is scored on a range of criteria, we always encourage and support staff, patients and visitors to look at other alternatives such as using the park and ride scheme, car share, cycling or walking in and a drop-off facility where possible.

"The demand for parking on site from patients and visitors continues to be high, particularly during winter months.

"Approximately 10 years ago, the Trust entered into a contract with Q-Park to build our multi-storey Cedars car park.

"This has greatly improved our parking facilities on site; however it also does require us to charge for spaces for both staff and visitors to cover the cost of this investment and the day-to-day running of the car park.

“Any income generated from the car parking contract is used to pay the costs of providing parking and excess funds are put into clinical services."

British Medical Association council chair, Dr Chaand Nagpaul, said it was “unacceptable” for hospitals to plug financial gaps by charging and imposing fines on staff.

Patients' rights campaigners the Patients Association has criticised the existence of parking charges for patients, describing them as "a charge on people who are unwell, levied on them because they are unwell."

However, chief executive Rachel Power said they were a way for hospitals to generate revenue at a time when they are under "immense" financial pressure.

She continued: "The top priority for any new NHS funding should be patient care.

"At a time when patients are receiving undignified and unsafe care on hospital corridors, car parking charges are not the top priority – undesirable though they may be.”

Decisions on how much to charge patients, staff and visitors to NHS sites are made by individual trusts.

However, the Department of Health and Social Care has issued guidance on how NHS organisations can make sure their policies are fair.

These include offering concessions to disabled and gravely ill people and their relatives, as well as to staff whose shift patterns mean they are unable to use public transport.

Hospital parking charges were abolished in Wales earlier this year after the last contract with a private firm expired - a decade after the Welsh Government announced parking would be free.

Parking charges have also largely been abolished in Scotland, but remain in Northern Ireland as well as England.

A spokeswoman for NHS Improvement said income generated was used to pay the costs of providing parking, while excess funds were put into clinical services.

She continued: “As we develop the long-term plan for the NHS, it is right that trusts continue to develop their commercial income opportunities.

“This is so that they can maintain their services and ensure they can provide patients with high quality care, both now and in future.”