PATIENTS and visitors face increases of 15-44 per cent in car-parking charges at the Royal Gwent Hospital from October 1 - and charges are to be introduced at five other hospitals later in the autumn.

Three hours of parking at the Royal Gwent, Newport, currently £1.70, will go up to £2 from next Saturday, a 15 per cent increase.

People wishing to park for up to six hours will have to pay £2.50, a 25 per cent increase.

Twenty-four-hour parking will cost £5, up from £2.80, a rise of 44 per cent. Gwent Community Health Council (CHC), the independent patients' watchdog, expressed concern over the increases.

"The extra costs at the Royal Gwent seem excessive, particularly for people with limited means who cannot reclaim these charges," said public involvement officer David Kenny.

He said the hospital travel costs and NHS low-income schemes, which the charity Macmillan Cancer Relief is currently publicising and urging NHS trusts to promote, will help some people on benefits to reclaim travel costs, but many people who do not qualify for rebates find such charges an extra strain.

The CHC will ask Gwent Healthcare Trust to consider introducing concessions for people who have to attend hospital regularly, and for parents who might have to spend a considerable amount of time visiting a child.

The trust also proposes to introduce charges at St Cadoc's Hospital, Caerleon, Llanfrechfa Grange Hospital, near Cwmbran, County Hospital, Griffithstown, Caerphilly District Miners Hospital, and Ystrad Mynach Hospital.

Health chiefs believe the price increases and extension of charging are justified for the purposes of improving security and ensuring that parking policies, such as the authorised use of disabled bays, can be maintained.

Money raised from car-parking charges pays for car-park attendants.

Trust staff costs are still being discussed with NHS unions, and prices for the five hospitals where charging is being introduced have yet to be announced.

The trust has yet to reach a decision over the issue of what type of ticket machines to install. The CHC would like to see machines that issue change, though these cost around £10,000 each, four times as much as machines that do not.