Despite promises in the 2019 Tory manifesto to end unfair hospital car parking charges for those in most need including disabled, regular patients and parents of sick children nothing has so far been done.

Hospitals charged more than £53 million in car parking fees in a year of the pandemic up to the end of April last year - a huge amount when you take into account that relatives were not allowed to visit due to Covid restrictions.NHS staff including doctors and nurses forked out more than £5 million in that time.

The Department of Health has hit back by saying that hospitals have been given funding to cover the costs of suspending these charges and should not in any way be implementing them.

If this is the case where is the extra revenue going? Is it being directed back into the NHS front line services? Somehow I very much doubt it.

I have always maintained that hospital staff should not have to pay to go to work. Many of them are already exhausted and have put not only their own lives but also their families’ lives on the line during the pandemic.

Obviously the Tories recognised the injustice of these charges back in 2019 and informed the NHS Trusts to stop them. Action must now be taken against the Trusts that appear to be ignoring this request.

Not that long ago the Government was calling our health service workers heroes. Surely heroes should not be victimised simply for turning up to work.

Mrs L M Jackson