A mother who is expecting twins has criticised the new parking arrangements at Watford General Hospital, calling the long trudge up from the car park “exhausting”.

Sara Schaffer-Lyus, who is 35 weeks pregnant, says changes to the hospital’s parking facilities and the lack of short stay spaces have made it difficult for her father drop her off and pick her up from check-ups.

As a result, she has to climb the steep hill from the car park and walk past the main hospital building to reach the gynaecology department at the very top of the complex.

She said: “It is slow progress – stop-start for most of it. It takes more than 10 minutes to walk up, and that depends on how far up the car park you can get.”

Her father Steven said the creation of a new one-way road – Thomas Sawyer Way – leading from the car parks back out on to the main road has actually made accessing different parts of the hospital less practical.

“Before you could drive in here, drop off and drive through into the car parks. Even the staff say they have problems,” he said.

“We get here early to find a decent space but it still takes half an hour to get a space sometimes. Sometimes we get here before 8am and still can’t park.

“There’s nowhere to park – it’s ridiculous. Everybody says the same thing. You can see how far the walk is up a steep hill. Getting a pram or a wheelchair up it would be hard.”

Mr Schaffer warned that the walk could become even more treacherous with a cold weather snap due to hit parts of the country later this week.

Tim Duggleby, head of development at the West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust, admitted the car parks at Watford General are “far from ideal due to the steepness of the site”.

He said: “I’m sorry that this has caused difficulties for one of our patients and her father. The condition of our car parks is a long-standing issue for the trust, which is why our chief executive chairs our car park working group.

“We are considering increasing the disabled and short stay car parking next to the main hospital building. Over the longer term, we are working with Watford Borough Council and Watford Health Campus partners to develop a multi-storey car park for the site as part of the scheme.”

He added that the hospital’s estate team was “well prepared” for the imminent drop in temperature.