A UNION says Winchester’s main hospital will lose staff because of the clampdown on parking on site.

Some medical staff at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital have been told to use the park and ride on the edge of the city, several miles from the hospital.

Managers want to encourage workers to use the park and ride near Compton to free up space for patients and their families and clinical staff who need their cars during the day.

But Sarah O’Donoghue, of UNISON, predicts the move will encourage staff to leave.

She also questioned its necessity as it is argued little is done to police the existing car parks at the RHCH to make sure they are only being used by people who have a right to be there.

Ms O’Donoghue said: “This move has a direct impact on our members. I think we will lose staff. People get very wound up about parking.”

She added the unions have not been consulted by management. “I’m very surprised about that. We want to be consulted.”

Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust chief executive Alex Whitfield previously said: “We are working hard to try to address the problems we face regarding car parking capacity for staff at RHCH. We encourage all staff to make use of park and ride and we pay for them to have free access to this service. We also provide a minibus service for staff between the hospital and the park and ride car parks in the evenings, when public buses are not available.”