Disabled drivers will no longer be able to park for free at Medway Maritime Hospital.

Medway NHS Foundation Trust will be charging blue badge holders normal parking fees from Monday, July 2.

A spokesman for the Trust said it was to create fairness around concessions and to generate income as pressure on budgets continues.

She added: "We offer a range of other concessions to make car parking accessible for all our patients and visitors and these will remain unaffected. This includes parking for parents or guardians of children on paediatric wards and for the next of kin of patients on critical, intensive or high dependency units.

"Surplus income, after running costs of the car park have been met, is put directly back into patient care to improve services for local people."

From Monday, free parking will only be offered to volunteers, cancer patients and terminally-ill patients on the Liverpool Care Pathway.

A concessionary rate of £10.50 for seven days will continue to be available for relatives of cancer patients receiving oncology treatment, and patients or visitors and carers of those in the intensive care unit, high dependency unit, the neonatal intensive care unit and the children’s wards.