NHS hospitals are making more money than ever from car park charges, with more than half charging disabled visitors and making thousands every year in fines, an investigation has found.

Hospitals across England made more than £120 million from charging patients, staff and visitors for parking in the last year, up 5% on the year before and rising year on year, according to data collected by the Press Association.

Some 120 NHS trusts across England were asked to give figures on parking charges and fines under the Freedom of Information Act, with 89 providing responses.

Overall, NHS trusts netted £120,662,650 in 2015/16 in car park charges, up from £114,873,867 the year before, the study found.

Some 27 trusts provided data on parking fines, showing they made £2,300,208 in fines over a four year period. In 2015/16 alone, £635,387 was made from fining patients, visitors and staff on hospital grounds.

More than half of trusts who responded to the FOI request are making more than £1 million in car park fees every year.

That includes Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, who made £1,162,653 last year. Dorset County Hospital made £531,892, while Bournemouth's trust did not respond to the FOI request.

In Southampton the hospital trust made £3,366,770, of which £1,015,081 was from staff.

Earlier this year Poole Hospital shift workers told the Echo they felt ‘demoralised and stressed’ after being told they could no longer park at the hospital and had to walk to park at Poole Stadium or the Dolphin Centre instead - while workers said managers were unaffected by the changes.