Hospitals in Bradford raked in more than £860,000 by forcing patients and visitors to pay for parking their cars.

New figures reveal that Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust collected a staggering £861,000 in parking charges last year - almost £200,000 more than its equivalent in Leeds.

The figures, which have been obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, show that 12 hospital trusts across the country each raised more than £1 million in charges in the year to April 2005.

Leeds Teaching NHS Trust earned £661,824 from its car parking charges. Figures were not available for Airedale NHS Trust.

Bradford Teaching Hospitals provoked outrage in the summer of 2004 when it announced price hikes, some in excess of 300 per cent, for staff, patients and visitors parking at Bradford Royal Infirmary and St Luke's Hospital.

Prices rose from £1 for up to four hours and £1.50 for more than four hours to £3 for four hours and £5 for all-day parking.

However, in the autumn it was forced to make a u-turn after listening to concerns raised by visitors and patients. Discounts were offered for part-time staff, more short-stay parking time - with a £2 charge for up to three hours introduced - and a new concessionary scheme for regular visitors.

The policy of providing free car parking for motorists with disabilities as well as maintaining free 20 minute waiting spaces, was continued.

Melanie Milnes, 39, of Thornton, who has campaigned for the Hospital Trust to reduce its parking fees said: "It is hitting people when they need it the least - when they are ill and sick.

"It is an absolute disgrace that people should have to pay £5 a day.

"It is a matter of course that health care should be free at source. And since the primary care trusts moved the out-of-hours GP service into the hospital, people are now having to pay to use the emergency doctor service.

"What will be next? Patients being charged to park at their GP surgery? Where will it all end?"

She said a lot of rural communities had no direct bus service to BRI so they had to use the car - which didn't mean they were rich.

"The Bradford area that BRI serves is one of the poorest communities in the country with the highest problems in health," she said.

"They should not have to worry about parking their cars as well."

In December, the T&A reported that the jobs of eight car park security staff would be axed to help the hospital turn around the deficit it was facing.

Hospital staff, who pay a monthly charge to park at their workplace, were critical of the move at the time.

A spokesman for the Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said they were not able to say how much had been spent on running the car parks last year but said the hospital was continuing to improve parking facilities.

The spokesman said: "We continue to invest in improvements to car parking facilities at both Bradford Royal Infirmary and St Luke's Hospital.

"We have always taken the view that these facility improvements should be paid for by motorists and not subsidised by diverting money from frontline services. There is significant expense involved in creating and maintaining safe car parks.

"This investment includes the purchase of land, car park resurfacing, ensuring we meet environmental health guidelines on drainage, installing high-tech 24-hour CCTV monitoring equipment and the launch of mobile security patrols. We regularly monitor our car park charges both by comparing them to other hospitals and through a formal annual review by a working group with staff representation."

Officials at the Department of Health said it was up to hospitals to decide what to charge and that they deterred people not using the hospital to park there.

A spokesman said: "Ultimately it is a matter for individual NHS trusts to decide whether or not to charge for car parking and the level of charges in light of the local circumstances."

But the chief executive of Macmillan Cancer Relief, Peter Cardy, said: "Raising revenue by forcing cancer patients to pay for hospital parking is morally wrong.

"It is shameful that the sickest and most vulnerable people have to pay the most."