BOSSES at Frimley Health NHS Trust have hit back after the News revealed it gained millions from car parking charges in the past five years.
As one of the highest earning trusts in England, the figures obtained from the freedom of information request shows it made £18 million from charging staff, patients and visitors across Frimley Park, Heatherwood Hospital and Wexham Park Hospital.
Frimley Park Hospital in Camberley generated the most income from car parking charges, racking up £9,839,595.
Responding to the figures, a Frimley Health spokesman said: "The amount of parking income reflects the size of the Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust and the number of patients we care for at our three main hospital sites – Frimley Park Hospital near Camberley, Wexham Park Hospital in Slough and Heatherwood Hospital in Ascot. It includes income from visitor and staff car parking charges.
"We run and maintain our own car parks and money raised through parking charges is reinvested into car parking and the provision of round the clock security at our main hospital visitor car parks.
"For example, over the past five years we have spent millions of pounds increasing parking capacity at Frimley Park and Wexham Park hospitals for both visitors and staff.
"We have built a multi-storey visitor car park at Frimley, secured nearby land at both sites to convert into car parks and installed new payment facilities across the Trust.
"Any surplus is reinvested back into patient services."
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