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Disabled patients are to be charged nearly £2 an hour to park by an NHS hospital trust whose boss earns more than the Prime Minister.

The decision to end free parking for disabled patients and visitors is expected to generate £200,000 a year for cash-strapped East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust.

It comes in spite of Tory government promises to clamp down on the rip off fees. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has said patients and families shouldn’t have to deal with the added stress of unfair parking charges.

Under the plan, all drivers face a minimum £1.90 charge allowing them to park for up to three hours at East Lancashire’s five NHS hospitals in Blackburn, Burnley, Accrington, Clitheroe and Pendle.

Until now, disabled drivers could use free parking bays or, if these were full, claim back the charges.

The trust, whose £185,000 a year chief executive Kevin McGee gets £41,500 year more than the PM, says the much needed revenue will go towards supporting frontline services.

But MPs and campaigners have condemned the charges, due to come into force in October, as an “absolute disgrace”.

Labour’s Julie Cooper, who led an unsuccessful bid last year to get the Government to exempt carers from hospital parking charges, said: “It is an absolute disgrace and a kick in the teeth for people using and visiting hospitals.

“This is the human cost of a government that refuses to priorities the NHS.

“It cannot be right to force the most vulnerable hospital users to effectively subsidise the health service.”

Local Tory MP Nigel Evans said: “It’s a tax on the sick and those visiting them.”

(Image: Getty)

Russ McLean of the Patient Voice Group said: “This is going to cause additional stress and anxiety for patients who live with disabilities.”

Parking fees are worth millions of pounds to hospitals, vital money at a time when the NHS is so financially stretched.

Last month the Sunday Mirror revealed disabled patients are being charged an average £2 an hour to park at NHS hospitals across the country.

Latest figures from the Health and Social Care Information Centre show 132 hospital sites now charge disabled people to park as the NHS attempts to plug a £2bn deficit this year.

Under Department of Health guidelines issued to hospitals in England, relatives of the gravely ill, patients with disabilities, those with frequent appointments and staff working shifts must be given free or cheap parking.

Instead of cutting parking tariffs, though, some NHS chiefs have angered patients and staff by putting them up. And those who fail to pay the right amount are clobbered with fines totalling millions of pounds.

(Image: REX/Shutterstock)

East Lancashire hospital bosses refuse to reveal how much the trust currently makes from parking fees and fines.

The trust’s acting director of estates James Maguire says the new parking charges bring it into line with many other hospitals.

He said: “In the light of the current situation and pressure on the NHS to do more with less money, this was one area in which we feel savings can be made without affecting the quality of our clinical services.

“Parking charges at our hospitals remain among the lowest in the country. It’s important to point out we offer concessions and reimbursements for patients and visitors who have to attend hospital on a regular basis.”isable