Anger as Hartlepool's hospital trust announces return of parking charges - this is when you will have to start paying again

North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust dropped its parking fees at the beginning of April for staff, patients and visitors.

But as cases and deaths of coronavirus continue to fall, the trust, which runs the University Hospital of Hartlepool and University Hospital of North Tees, has given an update about when the charges are to start again.

A spokesperson for North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust said: “We have provided free parking to staff, patients and visitors during the Covid-19 pandemic.

"This will come to an end on Friday 31 July 2020 and from Saturday 1 August 2020 we will reintroduce parking charges to staff, patients and visitors.

"Consistent with the previous terms and conditions, we will not charge for the first 20 minutes of every visit which includes the use the various pick-up and drop-off points.

“All car parking income is reinvested back into patient services.”

Hartlepool MP Mike Hill said asking NHS staff to pay again after all their hard work during the emergency ‘beggars belief’.

He said: “I have been campaigning for free car parking for NHS staff, patients and visitors for many years and long before I became an MP.

"Charging staff to park at their own place of work is nothing more than a stealth tax on their wages and to even contemplate reintroducing it now, after all our hard working NHS staff have done to keep us safe during the ongoing pandemic, simply beggars belief.”

He added: "Just up the road in Scotland nobody has to pay to park at a hospital in order to either work there, receive treatment there or visit loved ones; it was even in the Tory manifesto at the last election and it’s about time they implemented it.

"I missed my own father’s last breath because I was feeding the meter. Nobody should have to go through something like that.”

Health Minister Edward Argar has said free parking for staff had only been made possible by support from local authorities and independent providers which cannot go on indefinitely.

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