Free car parking will be available at all Welsh hospitals by the end of the year, 10 years after the Welsh Government announced it as policy.

Glangwili Hospital, Prince Phillip and University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff are the only three sites which still charge for car parking.

They had signed long contracts with commercial companies to run parking.

The charges had originally been labelled as a "tax on the sick" by the British Medical Association.

When the free hospital parking policy was announced by former Health Minister Edwina Hart in March 2008 it was intended to start the following month.

Where health boards were already bound by legal contracts, they were required to "reduce costs for patients, staff and visitors".

In the year before the announcement, Welsh hospitals collected nearly £5.4m in parking charges.

Hywel Dda University Health Board's car parking contracts for Prince Philip and Glangwili hospitals will expire by the end of this year.

The board is looking at how it will manage free parking after then.

Free parking will start at UHW on 5 June when the contract with Indigo ends.