South Essex hospital trust to reintroduce parking permits

The Mid and South Essex NHS Trust - which manages Southend, Basildon and Broomfield hospitals - originally waived parking fees in March 2020 after 400,000 signed a petition calling for free parking for NHS workers.

However, nationally the Government ended free parking for NHS hospital staff in March 2022.

Nevertheless, the Mid and South Essex NHS Trust continued to keep parking free for staff, funding it themselves after it was ended by the Government.

Yesterday, bosses have announced that this will come to an end from September as the Trust is facing “significant financial losses” unless they “reintroduce staff parking charges”.

Matthew Hopkins, chief executive of Mid and South Essex NHS Trust, said: “We have taken the decision to reintroduce staff parking permits from September 2024, in line with many other Trusts across the country.

“This will improve the safety and accessibility of our car parks for staff and patients, create a fairer system across all three main hospitals, and allow us to invest in improving our parking facilities and sustainable transport options.”

At the time the Government ended free parking charges, campaign group Save Southend NHS stated it was “criminal” to charge staff who have worked continuously throughout the pandemic under immense pressure.

The organisation believed free parking should be “a given” for NHS staff, especially as many come out at “ridiculous times of the night” and have to “walk miles to their car”.

Another reason for the change to reintroduce permits is down to safety.

The Mid and South Essex NHS Trust say the numbers of staff driving into work has increased and made car parks “oversubscribed and unsafe”.

Bosses insisted the vast majority of staff will still be paying less than they were before the pandemic, and Band 2 and 3 staff will not be charged for their permits.

The permit scheme will be the same across the three main hospitals - Southend, Basildon, and Broomfield.