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Figures for the financial year to April show patients and visitors shelled out £48.2million, while doctors and nurses spent £5.3million, it was reported yesterday.

It comes despite Boris Johnson’s 2019 Tory manifesto pledge to axe “unfair” hospital car park charges for the most needy.

Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said: “NHS staff are exhausted. Prices and bills are rising. What thanks do they get for their heroic efforts over the pandemic? Rip-off parking charges.”

Colenzo Jarrett-Thorpe, of public sector union Unite, called the situation “unconscionable” and “another slap in the face” for NHS workers.

Hospitals claim their pay-topark policy is a binding condition of their contracts with private business partners.

But the Department of Health said they should not be charging staff and cash-strapped users because they had been given funding to cover those costs.

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A spokesman said: “NHS trusts are responsible for setting their car parking charges and any revenue must go back into frontline services.”

The British MedicalAssociation has called the trend in charging “a rebuff to the immense efforts of staff and the sacrifices they have made to keep others safe”.

Dr Chris Gough said he received a parking ticket three weeks ago after finishing a 13-hour shift in intensive care at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff.

He said he did not realise his permit did not cover the area where he parked.

Danielle Boxall, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Parking charges are a disgraceful tax on the sick and their visitors.

“The NHS has to make tough spending decisions but it shouldn’t resort to dipping into the pockets of patients instead of finding ways to save money.”

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