Parking charges to rise at Mid Yorkshire Hospitals Trust

Mid Yorkshire Hospitals Trust has increased some patient charges by up to 20p and hiked the cost of parking permits for employees by four per cent.

The trust, which runs Pinderfields, Pontefract and Dewsbury hospitals, said the cost of a one-hour stay for patients and visitors would stay at £1.30. A two-hour stay will rise from £2.70 to £2.80, and stays of up to four hours will rise by 10p to £4.10.

The charge for parking for between four and 24 hours will also rise from £6.70 to £6.90.

For hospital staff, the cost of parking will rise by four per cent - more than twice the rate of inflation.

Kevin Oxley, director of estates at Mid Yorkshire, said: “We try to keep car parking charges as low as we possibly can. Unfortunately we do need to review costs against increases in inflation and it is reflected in the changes.

“We continue to offer a range of concessions and reduced rates for our patients including long stay discounts, reduced rate permits for relatives or carers of patients on units such as critical care and cancer patients.”

Mid Yorkshire said any surplus income it gets from parking at Dewsbury and District Hospital went into its own funds.

But income from parking at Pinderfields and Pontefract hospitals goes to Consort Healthcare, a private company which built the hospitals under a Private Finance Initiative.

Information on parking concessions can be found on the trust’s website www.midyorks.nhs.uk