Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Trust made millions of pounds from parking charges including £900k from staff
Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Trust made millions of pounds in profit from charging patients and staff to park in the year to March, new figures show.
The GMB union, which represents many NHS staff, said it was "perverse and grotesque" that healthcare workers must pay to park at work.
New figures released by NHS England show Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust received around £3.2million from parking charges across its various sites.
This was made up of £2.3million from charging patients and visitors, and £954,000 from staff.
Across England, trusts received £271 million from parking charges, a 12 per cent increase on 2023-24.
At Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Trust income from parking increased by two per cent from £3.2 million a year earlier.
In 2024, Director of Facilities at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Andrew Jones said that all profits from car parking is reinvested in Sheffield NHS services, adding it was “regrettably impossible” for spaces to be provided for all 19,000 of its staff.
Meanwhile, Sheffield Children's Hospital actually lost £29,100 in parking services in the same period, after it took in around just £10,000 while costing £40,600 to operate.
‘The cost of parking takes too much of their pay’
Brian Morton, associate director for employment relations at the Royal College of Nursing, said: "For nursing staff, the cost of parking takes too much of their pay.
"Staff are having to pay to park at work and can even be hit with fines when they stay late caring for their patients. This simply cannot be right.
"Staff work around the clock to be there for their patients – and working odd shift times, means using public transport is not always possible.
"Trust leaders must do more to provide free parking for staff and not leave them out of pocket just for coming to work."
What does Sheffield Teaching Hospital Trust say?
Andrew Jones, Facilities Director at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “The figures reported cover five hospitals and cater for over two million patients plus a similar number of visitors parking each year.
“We recognise that car parking charges are an extra cost for staff, patients and visitors but we have to provide car parking and so if we don’t charge, then we would have to cover the costs from other budgets.
“This would potentially mean less for patient care services. Once maintenance and new development costs are covered, any surplus income we receive is always reinvested in the NHS here in Sheffield.
“We offer a park and ride service for staff, free courtesy shuttle bus between sites and staff permits are graded in relation to salary band with no increase being applied to lower banded staff this year.
“We also offer free parking for staff working nights and for a number of patient concessionary groups as well as discounted rates for longer stay patients.”
£187m made through car parking nationally
The data also shows the cost of administering NHS car parks rose by nine per cent, a slower rate than the income they generated.
Nationally, the NHS spent £84 million administering parking, giving it a total net income of £187 million.
Managing parking cost Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Trust a total of £883,000 meaning overall it gave it a net income of £2.4 million.
Sharon Wilde, national officer at the GMB said: "When the charges have risen faster that the cost of maintaining the car parks, it looks like the worst kind of profiteering.
"Health workers deal with punishing workloads and chronic understaffing – they need help and support.
"Paying to park while performing vital, lifesaving work feels like the ultimate kick in the teeth."
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said local trusts are responsible for car parking space numbers, rates for parking and charging methods, but all parking charges should be "reasonable for the local area."
They added: "Free parking is available for those in greatest need, including all NHS staff who work overnight.
"While hospital car park charges are the responsibility of individual NHS trusts, we expect all charges to be reasonable and in line with the local area".