Staff at a Kent hospital have slammed a lack of spaces which has resulted in “dangerous” parking, with some workers being forced to leave their car off-site and walk into work.

A large two-storey block at the back of Maidstone Hospital in Hermitage Lane is assigned for workers, as well as extra spaces outside, but it is often full to the brim.

As a result, some cars have had to be left in unsafe spaces or tight corners, which hospital bosses aren’t happy about. Workers have even been warned they risk losing their permits as a result.

An email sent to employees said: “Please ensure you park safely and considerately when using our hospital car parks. Any staff parking inappropriately will be contacted and may lose their parking permit if they continue to obstruct other vehicles.”

After visiting the site on Tuesday morning, KentOnline saw it was packed – with some cars not in proper spaces. A silver vehicle was also observed circling the car park for five minutes trying to find a spot.

Last year, 100 extra patient spaces were added to each site in Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells to ease visitors’ woes during busy periods.

Now, staff are calling for swift action to fix their parking nightmare, which is starting to take its toll.

One worker, who didn’t want to be named, revealed they have often have to park off-site and have a 30-minute round trip to and from the hospital.

He said: “A decision was made to remove spaces from the staff parking to accommodate extra patient parking.

“This has had a massive negative effect on the staff who are now struggling to find a space, resulting in dangerous parking and the risk of a fine so that they can get into work and look after those patients.

“I dread seeing a late shift on the rota, as I know I will have trouble parking. I end up leaving home much earlier anyway just to get a space some days.”

He added: “The issue has been raised multiple times with the higher-ups by many people but we just get told they are looking into it. There is no suggestion of when a solution will be implemented or what we are supposed to do in the meantime.

“I don’t know what the answer is. Giving those spaces back would cause more issues for the patients again and there still won’t be enough for us. There is a new unit being built out the back now which will just add to the problem. The parking situation should really have been considered before we got to this point.”

A spokesperson for Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust said: “We have increased car parking facilities at our hospitals in recent years and are looking at options to provide further parking capacity while supporting safe parking on our sites.

“The number of car parking spaces at our hospitals has increased by 20% over the last five years. There are currently 1231 car parking spaces at Maidstone Hospital (including the Hermitage Court site) compared to 1080 spaces in 2019. There are 1112 car parking spaces at Tunbridge Wells Hospital (including assigned spaces at Mercure Tunbridge Wells Hotel) compared to 874 spaces in 2019.

“We are unable to provide allocation numbers for patients and staff as car parking spaces are used flexibly depending on demand.”