Staff at St George’s University Hospitals Trust paid almost £200,000 in parking fees in the last financial year, according to figures released by the NHS.

According to the figures, the trust made £197,680 from charges and penalty fines. Across England, NHS Trusts made a combined total of almost £70 million from staff parking charges over the same period.

Unite, a union which represents around 100,000 health workers, has slammed the "scandalous" figures, which it said amounted to a "tax on hard-pressed" employees, while an employee at the trust said you’d be “stupid” to park at the trust every day.

Unite regional officer Steve O’Donnell, described the figures as a scandal: “Staff working at St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust have been used as a milch cow by the management of the trust to the tune of almost £200,000 due to parking charges in the last financial year.

“This is an outrageous and unscrupulous ‘tax on work’ for those health staff who come into work 365 days a year to look after the sick, injured and vulnerable.

“I think that the residents of in south London will be appalled at the way that dedicated and often low paid staff are being used as an additional income stream by the bosses of these two trusts.

“The government continues to underfund the NHS as demand from a growing population increases, especially amongst the elderly and this means that trusts are casting around to gain extra income, but it should not be at the expense of their own workforce.

“Recently, the health unions secured a pay deal for NHS staff which will see most staff receive a rise of 6.5 per cent over the next three years. You don’t have to be a mathematical genius to work out that car parking charges will seriously erode that pay increase.”

British Medical Association council chair, Dr Chaand Nagpaul, added that it was “unacceptable” for hospitals to plug financial gaps by charging and imposing fines on staff.

The figures also reveal the trust made a further £2 million from parking charges paid by patients and visitors to its sites in the same financial year.

This brought their total income from car parking to £2.2 million.

Across England, almost £157 million was raised from charges incurred by patients and visitors.

The figures represent the gross income earned by the NHS and do not consider its own costs for providing car parking.

A St Georges Trust spokesperson said: “Our parking charges at St George’s are low in comparison to other Trusts across the UK.

“As a busy London Trust, we have limited parking spaces available, so have put in place strict criteria for staff parking with priority given to those who need to drive to deliver care – e.g. community midwives. Staff with these roles are provided with free permits.

“Given the limited number of car parking spaces, we encourage staff to travel to work by public transport as Tooting is well served by tube, train and bus links.”