HEALTH chiefs in Winchester are to hit staff and visitors at the city hospital with huge rises in car parking charges.

Increases of up to 300 per cent are proposed for some wanting to park at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital.

Worst-hit will be workers at the Romsey Road site, whose monthly parking fees could treble from the current bill of £5.60 to £18.70.

Visitors and patients will also be clobbered, with the rates changing from the present one-hour charge of 70p to £1.50, while the bill for a three-hour stay will go up from £2.10 to £2.50.

The move follows months of speculation about how health bosses would deal with their parking crisis caused by too many cars chasing too few spaces.

In March this year the Winchester and Eastleigh NHS Trust, which runs the RHCH, sent out a letter warning 'radical' action was necessary to deal with the worsening parking situation at the site.

Managers are keen to encourage workers to use the park-and-ride service but they risk angering the staff, the very people needed to recapture the recently-lost three-star rating and achieve foundation status next year.

A spokesman for Unison said: "I'm quite frankly appalled. When these proposals were first given to us, so many people complained about it that the unions were given the impression there would be a re-think. But instead all they have done is repeat the proposals and give the unions and their members no time to discuss it. I think this is very underhand and not at all fair to their staff."

One worker, who asked not to be named, said: "It's more than heavy-handed, it's totally ludicrous. What was needed was a suitable solution to the problem, but that's not happened.

"When you look at what they want us to do with the park-and-ride, it will mean for some people driving across the city, adding more congestion, only to park up and then face two bus trips just to get to work. It'll add around three-quarters of an hour to your average day."

A spokesman for Amicus, added: "If the hospital could get the city council to put a park-and-ride on this side of the city, then I'm sure it would be wonderful.

"But, as things are at the moment, this plan will probably just cause more problems."

However bosses at the trust have defended the proposals, arguing that there simply wasn't any alternative if a solution to the parking issue was to be found.

Trust chief executive Rod Halls said: "I can understand that people are upset, but we have tried to involve staff in the proposals.

"At the end of the day though, the parking problem at the hospital is getting worse and something has to be done."