Northumbria Healthcare made more than £1 million in profit from charging patients and staff to park in the year to March, new figures show.

New figures released by NHS England show Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust received around £2.2 million from parking charges across its various sites.

This was made up of £1.3 million from charging patients and visitors, and £868,000 from staff.

At Northumbria Healthcare income from parking increased by 7% from £2 million a year earlier.

Northumbria Healthcare made more than £1 million in profit from parking charges last year.

placeholder image — Northumbria Healthcare made more than £1 million in profit from parking charges last year.

The GMB union, which represents many NHS staff, said it was "perverse and grotesque" to force them to pay to park at work.

Sharon Wilde, national officer at the GMB said: "When the charges have risen faster that the cost of maintaining the car parks, it looks like the worst kind of profiteering.

"Paying to park while performing vital, lifesaving work feels like the ultimate kick in the teeth."

Brian Morton, associate director for employment relations at the Royal College of Nursing, added: "Trust leaders must do more to provide free parking for staff and not leave them out of pocket just for coming to work.".

Managing parking cost Northumbria Healthcare a total of £712,000, meaning overall it gave it a net income of £1.5 million.

A spokesperson for Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust said: “Our car parking charges for patients and visitors remain among the lowest in the NHS.

“We offer free car parking for patients and their visitors in a number of cases which includes disabled (blue) badge holders, patients attending regularly over an extended period and visitors of long-stay patients.

“Staff parking charges apply to all employees and follow a tiered system based on hours worked and pay band. Staff who hold a disabled badge are exempt from these charges.

“All income from parking charges – both staff and public, is used to maintain and secure our car parks. Any surplus is reinvested directly into patient care and the development of local health services.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "Free parking is available for those in greatest need, including all NHS staff who work overnight.

"While hospital car park charges are the responsibility of individual NHS trusts, we expect all charges to be reasonable and in line with the local area.”