MORE than four in 10 NHS hospitals are making more money than ever from increased parking charges for visitors, staff and patients, an investigation has found.

Of the 124 NHS trusts that responded, 43 per cent said they had increased prices in the last year, the Press Association revealed.

A stay of four to 24 hours cost £8 in 2017/18 at Airedale NHS Foundation Trust in West Yorkshire, up from £3.50 the year before. A stay of two to four hours now costs £5, up from £3.

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said the parking charges are a “tax on the sick” and that the next Labour government will axe them.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn confirmed this. “It’s wrong to charge people to visit loved ones in hospital and the staff who care for them.”

Some of the trusts that have put up prices are making millions every year from parking.

Frimley Health in Surrey, one of the highest earning trusts in England, made over £4 million from parking charges in 2017/18 and has raised the cost of parking during each of the last two financial years.

Unison’s head of health Sara Gorton said: “Health employees whose shifts end after the last train or bus has gone, or who work in remote areas with little or no public transport, or out and about in the community, have no option but to use their cars.

“If the government put more money into the health service, charges could be scrapped, and nurses, porters and their NHS colleagues would no longer have to pay through the nose simply to park at work.”

Royal College of Nursing (RCN) director Tom Sandford said nursing staff working around the clock to keep patients safe should not be overcharged for doing their jobs.

Parking charges have been abolished in Wales and most of Scotland.

Some hospitals have defended the practice as they claim some or all of the money is put back into patient care or spent on maintaining car parks.

Others claim their size and serving busy neighbourhoods means they take more revenue.

A Department of Health spokesman said the trusts are responsible for the charges and that they want to see them “coming up with options that put staff, patients and their families first.”