HEALTH chiefs have devised a temporary solution to a parking shortage at a new £36m Hampshire hospital.

A shuttle bus service will ferry staff from the former Lymington hospital to its successor, which has been built on the outskirts of the town.

Staff will be able to park outside the old hospital and catch a minibus to their new place of work.

As reported in the Daily Echo, the hospital has only 205 parking bays, just 85 of which are available to the 400 employees.

When the hospital opened last week, staff living nearby were asked to walk or cycle to work to ease the pressure on the car park.

Now, minibuses will run every seven minutes in a further attempt to ease the problem.

A Hampshire Primary Care Trust spokesman said a free park-and-ride scheme would operate from the old hospital from today.

When planning permission was granted, New Forest District Council limited the number of parking spaces as part of a green transport plan that aimed to encourage more people to leave their car at home.

However, the hospital is on an industrial estate on the edge of Lymington and is difficult to reach by public transport.

NHS bosses want to more than double the number of parking spaces and are exploring the possibility of buying or renting neighbouring land.

A neighbouring railway station could be re-opened, depending on the outcome of a feasibility study.

The former Ampress Halt on the Lymington to Brockehurst line served an old engineering works that used to stand on the hospital site.