Drivers across the UK may be familiar with paying through the nose for car parking, but for those who have needed to visit a hospital recently, the often outlandish sums charged are not just frustrating - they can also be distressing.

This is the conclusion of research by Action for Sick Children (ASC). As a result of its findings, the charity has launched a campaign called Park the Car - Park the Charges, calling on heads of primary care trusts and acute service trusts to review car-park pricing by hospitals.

ASC's research discovered that the average charge for a 24-hour stay in a hospital car park is £8.50 - much more than many people can afford - and that in some cases the price of parking can be as high as £55 a day.

Hospital stays are difficult enough without people having to fork out such amounts to park, the charity argues. It is concerned that visiting parents who want to spend as much time as possible by their child's bedside could worry about the charges.

The research finds that some hospitals - around one in three - offer concessions to parents, and that one in 10 provides free parking. However, the charity says that by being inconsistent and sometimes expensive, the system fails to take account of parents' ability to pay, leading in many cases to "social exclusion".

An ASC spokeswoman says it would like to see the introduction of free family-visitor parking bays. By failing to offer universal free parking, hospitals are undermining National Service Framework standards that say people should receive the same quality of care regardless of their background, she says.

· www.actionforsickchildren.org