Hospitals in east London brought in over £2.7 million from parking charges in a single year, new figures have revealed.

Cash from patients, visitors and staff at King George and Queen’s hospitals totalled £2,703,817 during 2018/19.

Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the two hospitals, made £1,881,149 from patient parking £822,668 from staff.

Hospital bosses said the money made was spent on hospital improvements.

Richard Smith, head of car parking management at BHRUT, said: “All income from our car parking is spent on maintaining the facilities for our staff, patients and visitors. Any additional income goes towards improving our services for our patients.

“We offer a number of parking concessions, including for inpatients, cancer patients while receiving treatment, families of patients nearing the end of their lives and those in intensive care, as well as for birthing partners and families of babies and young children who are admitted to our hospitals.

“We are also aware of our impact on the environment and encourage those who are able to consider other forms of transport to get to our hospitals, which are well served by public transport. And we operate Faxi, a car sharing scheme, amongst our staff. Ours is the largest work-based scheme in the country.”

The Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust which runs St Margaret’s hospital in Epping, does not operate its own parking sites at the hospital and therefore data showed a £0 income from parking.

Mark Madden, executive chief finance and resources officer at EPUNFT, said: “The 2018-19 estates returns information collection return shows figures of £0 for car parking income from patients and staff because we do not charge staff or visitors for car parking at sites that we own.”

It costs £1 to stay at St Margaret’s car park for 2 hours or £3 for 24 hours.