HOSPITALS across the region charged patients and visitors more than £3m to park their cars last year, figures show.

A cancer charity immediately criticised the practice as morally wrong because people making frequent trips to hospital for treatment were paying out hundreds of pounds in charges.

But the Department of Health said they were necessary to discourage people who were not using the hospital from taking up badly needed parking spaces.

The figures, obtained through requests made under the Freedom of Information Act, reveal the highest income in the region from parking was £860,043, made by the North Tees and Hartlepool trust, which runs the University Hospital of North Tees, in Stockton, and the University Hospital of Hartlepool.

County Durham and Darlington Acute Hospitals received the lowest revenue of the trusts that supplied figures -£159,065.

Across England, 12 hospital trusts each raised more than £1m in charges, with the University Hospital Birmingham (£1.5m) topping the list.

The North Tees and Hartlepool trust fiercely defended its £2.20-a-day charge, insisting the money raised reflected the cost of award-winning security measures.

A spokeswoman said the fees would go up on Saturday to help plug the trust's £13.5m financial deficit.

Ten minutes' parking will be free, instead of 20, with a charge of £2.60 for up to an hour, £2.80 for up to two hours, £3 for up to four hours and £4 for more than four.

The spokeswoman said: "The last thing anyone wants when they come to hospital is to be worried about their car.

"We have been awarded a Park Mark safe car parking award two years running and we have invested significant amounts of money in resurfacing, security, lighting and barriers."

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

"It is shameful that the sickest and most vulnerable people have to pay the most. Hospital car parking costs are often the final straw in a long line of extra costs faced by cancer patients."

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