“Chaotic” hospital parking is forcing patients to wait hours for a space.

Visitors claim that busy car parks at the Royal Sussex County Hospital have got worse after attendants who used to guide traffic through hospital grounds were removed.

Sally Atkinson, who regularly visits the Brighton hospital regularly with her 16-year-old severely disabled daughter Zoe, said she is often left queuing for more than an hour.

Mrs Atkinsson, 42, of Benfield Way, Portslade, said: “People have been getting really frustrated and tempers have been frayed at times with drivers thinking others are pushing their way in ahead of the queue to get into the car park.

“I have a blue badge because of my daughter but even if the disabled spaces are empty, I can’t get to them because I have to queue with everyone eslse.

“It is chaotic. People have told me about missing appointments or being late for them as a result.”

Mrs Atkinson, who is married to Robert, 45, and has two younger children Megan, 14 and Sam, 12, said the situation has got worse over the last two months and needs to be addressed.

A hospital spokeswoman said: “We are sorry that Mrs Atkinson has had such a long wait to get into our multi-story car park.

“We know how frustrating this is, particularly for patients who have to visit the hospital regularly.

“Unfortunately the car park is not big enough for the number of people coming into the hospital which is why our plans to redevelop the Royal Sussex include appropriate parking facilities for patients, visitors and staff.”

She added that new attendants have been appointed and As well as appointing the new attendants, the hospital is also replacing car-parking signs on Eastern Road with digital signs which tell people how many spaces there are and how long the wait will be.