THE NEW parking system at the Great Western Hospital has been branded ‘highly dangerous’ and ‘potentially fatal’ by a nurse.

On Monday, changes to staff parking were introduced as well as a new pay-on-exit system with an additional 50 spaces transferred from staff to public parking.

The changes mean staff are now paying £1 a day compared with the £5 a month that was previously charged, with a cap on how frequently they could use the car park, in a bid to encourage car sharing.

One nurse, who works in the A&E department, and wishes to remain anonymous, said the changes are affecting his work.

“We literally cannot believe what they have done,” he said.

“The queues to get in and out of the car park are ridiculous and on Tuesday I was an hour late for my shift – I could have potentially saved a life in that hour.

“The new system means you cannot get into the car park until there is a space but there are always queues of people trying to get out – so it’s a Catch 22.

“The parking situation has always been bad but this new system is crippling staff and patients.

“It would be interesting to know how many patients have been forced to miss appointments and how many staff have been late for work.

“This is not a town centre shopping car park – it is a hospital.”

Patients are also up in arms about the new system, which they say has done nothing to improve the parking problems previously experienced at GWH.

Ken Denery, from Cricklade, has been visiting his wife at the GWH from 4pm to 8pm every day since she was rushed in by ambulance last Monday.

Under the old system, he was paying £2 to park during 4pm and 6pm, and a further 90p from 6pm to 8pm. But he claims the new pay-on-exit system means he has to pay £5.70 for the four hours, unless he pays for one ticket, leaves the car park and drives back in again after 6pm.

He said: “I have complained and I have been told I am eligible for a concessionary pass, which are supposedly available from the wards, but nobody on the wards seem to know anything about them.

“On the first day of the new system when I was up there, there was nobody around to tell us what to do, and everyone was just wandering around completely clueless.”

A GWH spokesman said staff have been resolving a number of teething problems since the parking system went live on Monday.

He said: “We have increased the number of spaces for patients and visitors by 10 per cent and we are not finding there are problems with finding a space at the busiest parts of the day – under the previous system we would often reach the point where there were no more spaces for patients and visitors.

“The problem we have experienced relates to some of the pay machines, at one point on Tuesday the system went down. One machine has not been working since the system went live but we do have five other pay machines working and we will be installing two additional machines in due course.”

He said staff have been reminded to use the intercom when the car park appears to be full so they can be redirected elsewhere.

He said: “No clinic has been delayed this week due to car parking.

“We will be reviewing the new system over the next three months.”