A MAN who made a wasted 50-mile roundtrip had to miss a hospital appointment because of a lack of parking.

Frustrated Chris Martin spent 30 minutes circling the car parks at Worcestershire Royal Hospital before abandoning his appointment.

He has urged hospital bosses to deal with the parking issues at the hospital on Charles Hastings Way which he says are "not helping patients".

Paul Brennan, deputy chief executive of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, said they were bringing in measures to free up parking spaces at the hospital.

It includes bringing back car parking charges at the car parks which had been free throughout the pandemic.

Issues with car parking at Worcestershire Royal Hospital

Mr Martin, from Kingswinford, near Dudley, said: "I circled both car parks twice behind lots of other cars trying to park. 

"In the end I had to abandon my appointment annoyingly.

"I rang the switchboard who put me through to the Hawthorne Suite and kept it ringing for ages but no one answered so I couldn’t even let anyone know I would not be there."  

"I realise my failed appointment is a cost to the NHS but it's not my fault that I could not park and have wasted my time today.

"The journey for me is a 50 mile round trip from Kingswinford.

"Something has to be done, this situation is not helping patients, neither are the excuses that I get back in my replies to my complaints. 

"I live near Dudley and there is no easy way to get to Worcester on public transport. 

"This is affecting real people now, every day and must be remedied."

Worcester News: Chris Martin had to abandon his appointment at Worcestershire Royal HospitalChris Martin had to abandon his appointment at Worcestershire Royal Hospital

There has been an increase in people using the hospital car park which has led to the hospital taking steps to remedy the situation.

Mr Brennan said: ”We apologise to anyone who has difficulty parking on any of our sites, the reintroduction of barrier controls on patient car parks should help us to manage parking more effectively.

"Other measures introduced to help ease parking pressure and traffic congestion on our sites includes the increased use of telephone and video appointments, which are more convenient for patients and reduce the number of vehicles coming onto our sites.”