SCRAPPING free parking for NHS staff is a “rebuff to the immense efforts” of healthcare workers during the pandemic, a doctors’ union charged today.

Ministers were urged to U-turn on plans to reintroduce parking fees for NHS staff in hospitals in England, a policy implemented on March 25 by Health Secretary Matt Hancock. 

The Department of Health has said the free parking will continue only for “key patient groups and NHS staff in certain circumstances” as the pandemic eases, according to the i newspaper.