HOSPITAL patients and visitors forked out £146million for car parking last year — treble the amount from two years earlier.
The total — the equivalent of £400,000 a day — was up by half from the £96.7million paid in 2021-22, NHS figures show.
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And it was triple the £47.9million from the previous year.
Meanwhile, hospital staff paid £46.7million in 2022/23 — eight times the £5.6million they paid in the previous year.
The soaring parking bill comes despite a Tory 2019 manifesto pledge to end unfair hospital charges.
The latest jump is, in part, down to fees scrapped during the pandemic being reintroduced in March last year.
But frequent visitors, the disabled, parents of sick children and staff on night shifts should be allowed to park for free under government rules.
The latest figures were uncovered by the Liberal Democrats, who want the government to set up a fund to help staff and visitors struggling with the charges.
Health spokeswoman Daisy Cooper said: “Hospital car parking fees are becoming a tax on caring for visitors and our hard-working NHS staff.
“This government is utterly failing to deliver on their promise to crack down on these unfair fees.”