Hospital bosses raked in more than £1.3m from their car parks in Huddersfield and Calderdale.

And almost a third of that - £423,520 - was paid by staff who had to pay to go to work in the Royal Infirmary and the Calderdale Royal Hospital.

Details of the figures came as many hospitals were criticised for the money they made from parking charges.

Another West Yorkshire hospital trust made almost £1m from parking charges last year.

According to figures obtained by Freedom of Information, Mid Yorkshire Hospital Trust made £973,000 from parking charges in 2014/15.

And while the trust made £424,000 from patient and visitor parking over half of the cash (£549,000) was paid by hospital staff.

Calderdale Royal Hospital, Halifax
Calderdale Royal Hospital, Halifax

Of more than 90 trusts that responded to a Freedom of Information (FoI) request by the Press Association, half are making at least £1million a year.

Seven NHS trusts earned more than £3 million in 2014/15 from charges, a further eight made more than £2 million a year while a further 32 earned more than £1 million a year.

Among the top earners was Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which raised £3,160,913 in 2014/15, up on the £2,977,109 in 2013/14.

The Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust released figures which show that a total of £1,331,577 was taken from parking charges in 2014/15.

Of that, £908,057 was paid by members of the public.

Almost half of all trusts also charged disabled people for parking in some or all of their disabled spaces including Mid Yorkshire Hospital Trust, which also runs Wakefield Pinderfields Hospital and Pontefract General Infirmary.

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The policy of charging blue badge holders to park was slammed by the Patients Association as ‘morally wrong’ and ‘a disgrace’.

Many trusts, however, defended their revenues, saying some or all of the money was put back into patient care or was spent on maintaining car parks or grounds.

Iain Brodie, Facilities General Manager at Mid Yorkshire Hospitals Trust, said: “We have kept our parking charges to a minimum and our prices are in line with other NHS Trusts, public sector organisations and off-street car parks in Wakefield and North Kirklees.

“In the past year we have spent more than £1m on our car parks to provide additional capacity for patients, staff and visitors; increased lighting and security patrols to make our car parks safer for drivers and their vehicles and, in partnership with our local clinical commissioning groups, have introduced the free and accessible 113 bus service which runs hourly between our three hospital sites.”

The sentiment was not shared however by Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association.

Ms Murphy said: “Why is it that patients in Wales and Scotland do not have to pay to park? It is a postcode lottery and a tax on sick people who sometimes struggle to pay.

“The money is never reinvested in frontline services. Hospital car parks are often managed by private contractors who take a huge percentage of the profits.

“This is morally wrong – and charging disabled people is a disgrace.”

Mid Yorkshire Hospital Trust, which runs Dewsbury District Hospital, is reconsidering its policy of charging disabled drivers to park on its premises following pressure from Dewsbury MP Paula Sherriff.