Chaos has descended on a hospital car park where patients have been queuing for up to an hour.
People have described the situation at Arrowe Park Hospital as a "nightmare", with staff and patients unable to find a parking space, causing some to miss their appointments and others to be late. Cars have been left blocking public pathways into and out of the free hospital car park, making it difficult for pedestrians and wheelchair users to get past.
Angus Harvey, 67, from Rock Ferry, said it took him 50 minutes to find a parking space before his appointment in January, during which time he witnessed a fight break out between two drivers.
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Angus said: "I had an appointment but because I'm a resident around by the hospital I know I've got to go up there an hour before my appointment to find a parking space. I got up there and I was driving around for about 40 minutes.
"I went into the car park and I got stuck because a couple of cars in front of me were these two women, who were fighting over a parking space."
Angus said the woman in front of him was waiting for a parking space to become available, but she was restricting the flow of traffic. He said: "The woman behind was asking her to move so she could get past.
"The woman said 'no wait you're f****** turn'." The other woman got out and said 'my son is hurt I'm trying to get him to A&E. I didn't wait for an ambulance because it's too long.' Then the next thing they started fighting.
"There was hair pulling, bad language, screaming and scuffling. I couldn't reverse because there were cars piling up behind me because these two women had blocked the entrance and the exit, so no one could go out. It lasted for 10 minutes."
As a blue badge holder, Angus said he's found it difficult to find a disabled parking space at the hospital in recent months after a number of disabled bays were blocked off due to ongoing building work.
A spokesperson for Arrowe Park Hospital said: "Due to important improvement work to redevelop the urgent and emergency care facility at Arrowe Park Hospital, it has been necessary to reconfigure the site roads. As part of the work our disabled parking spaces have been relocated into the main car park areas."
Angus said: "People are finding it very hard especially disabled people [who have] got too far to walk. I can understand why people are getting frustrated.
"If you've got an urgent appointment people are thinking what am I going to do? I'm waiting x amount of time for an appointment and now I can't find a place to park, I'm going to miss it."
Millie Leonard, 22, from Birkenhead, works as a senior support worker for Arrowe Hall, a supported living facility near the hospital. Millie and her team usually make use of the public footpath into the free hospital car park to take their residents to appointments.
But in recent months, Millie said they've been unable to do this due to cars parking across the pathway. Millie told the ECHO: "A lot of the people who we support are in wheelchairs. If they've got an appointment we go through that path.
"If you could get through it would be a two minute walk to the hospital, but a lot of the time we're having to walk right around Arrowe Park which takes about 30 minutes.
"It's really important because they've all got different needs and some of them we can't keep out for that long. If it's a matter of getting them to the hospital and straight back, we need to be as quick as we can and as safely as we can.
"It's obviously full so that's why they're parking there. I get they don't want to miss their appointments so they're parking anywhere they can but more cars are allowed in even when it's full.
Millie shared photos of the parking situation in a community group on Facebook, which received over 200 comments. One person commented: "Parking there is horrendous I missed my appointment last time.
Another said: "Nightmare at the moment."
Patients said they would like to see a multi-storey car park put in place at the hospital, while others said they would like to see the park and ride service between the hospital and Sainsbury's in Upton reinstated.
Millie added: "I think the car park needs a better system. The barrier is just constantly up."
When she arrived at the hospital to take her son to an appointment on January 31, Kirsty Kearns, 37, said the barriers into the car park had been left up.
Kirsty, originally from Huyton and living in Prenton, said: "I had to get my child from nursery and got to the hospital 15 minutes early. Then I was circling the car park and got stuck behind people because it was so busy.
"People were parking on the footpaths and blocking the entrance so you couldn't get past. In the past six years I've had two children there and have been to multiple appointments for maternity and it's never been like that. I was rushing panicking with the baby."
A Wirral University Teaching Hospital spokesperson said: “We apologise for any inconvenience patients may be facing regarding parking at Arrowe Park Hospital. The hospital is currently very busy leading to increased demand for car parking spaces.
"Our Security Team regularly patrol the sites to ensure people are parking correctly and we have road traffic management in place to assist with traffic flow around the site at peak times. Due to important improvement work to redevelop the urgent and emergency care facility at Arrowe Park Hospital, it has been necessary to reconfigure the site roads.
"As part of the work our disabled parking spaces have been relocated into the main car park areas. The overall upgrade programme does include modifying the car parks to improve patient parking. Unfortunately in recent weeks roadworks and temporary traffic lights on Arrowe Park Road have added to congestion for cars exiting the hospital at peak times.
“We would like to thank the public for their patience while the work is being carried out and would ask drivers to please follow the signage and take care on the roads around Arrowe Park Hospital. Where possible, we would ask people to consider public transport and to arrive early to give plenty of time to attend appointments.”
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