Shropshire hospital parking charge increase on the cards
Patients and visitors to the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Princess Royal Hospital in Telford could see parking charges increase by as much as 50% later this year.
If a 50% increase is introduced, hospital visitors and patients would see the current charge of £2 rise to £3, the first increase in parking charges for five years.
At a meeting in Shrewsbury on Thursday, Adam Cairns, chief executive of Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, revealed plans to install a new pay-on-exit parking system at the two hospitals.
Speaking at the meeting, Mr Cairns said the current pay and display parking system was proving unpopular with visitors and patients. He added that the cost of parking at the county’s two main hospitals would go up but any price increase had not yet been decided.
Earlier this year Telford borough councilor, Mike Ion, placed a Freedom of Information request to Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust to discover how much the trust received from car park charges.
The request revealed in 2010/11 patients and visitors to the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford and the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital paid more than £1.3 million in parking charges.
Parking charges of £751,944 were collected at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, whilst those parking at the Princess Royal Hospital paid £546,776.
Parking fines paid by patients and visitors totaled £15,315.
Private parking company CP Plus was paid £546,776 to administer the car parks, although the trust said it would struggle to manage it themselves for less money.
At the time Trust Chief Executive Adam Cairns said the parking charges represented an "important part of our income" and that services such as the Hamar cancer centre, not funded through the NHS, particularly relied on the parking revenues.
