Patient parking fees suspended at University Hospital of Hartlepool

North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust is dropping payment for all patients at the University Hospital of North Tees in Stockton and University Hospital of Hartlepool from Wednesday, April 1.

The trust said it is to ease pressure during the COVID-19 pandemic for an initial phase of three months.

Earlier this week, the trust announced it was suspending parking charges for staff after a nationwide petition was signed by over 400,000 people.

The trust has also suspended all but essential visiting at Hartlepool and North Tees hospitals to help limit spread of the coronavirus.

The only exemptions are for one parent or carer per child for appointments, accident and emergency and visits, parents only at North Tees’s Neonatal Unit and one birthing partner.