'RIDICULOUS' parking problems at Oxford's hospitals should be solved by moving 90,000 appointments to Banbury, health bosses have said.

Hospital managers have also promised to release a draft 'masterplan' to address problems in the next few months.

Reported hour-long searches for spaces at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Headington have prompted the response.

Oxfordshire County Council member for Deddington Arash Fatemian called the parking delays at city hospitals 'ridiculous' in December.

While the number of patients at Headington hospitals has risen steadily and is now more than 835,000, the number of parking spaces at the JR has stayed at 743 for years.

Today, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said problems could be solved by moving 90,000 appointments to Banbury's Horton General Hospital.

That is one of the proposals in the Big Health and Care Consultation launched in January to streamline the NHS in Oxfordshire.

But the hospitals trust has already endorsed the option.

Spokesman Kaelum Neville said: "This should also help significantly reduce much of the car parking difficulties and congestion often experienced by patients, staff and visitors accessing our Headington hospitals sites."

However the proposals being mooted in the consultation also include permanently downgrading the maternity unit at Banbury which would mean moving 1,000 births to Oxford ever year.

Mr Neville said the trust has also been working on an 'infrastructure masterplan' with specialists, AECOM, which would cover all of its hospitals and aim to address the 'complex issues of vehicular access and parking at our sites'.

He added: "The vision associated with this work requires discussions with multiple stakeholders including local councils, the public, our staff and many more, our current access and parking problems will not be solved overnight.

"However, we are hoping to have some initial broad concepts for wider discussion in the early part of 2017."

The John Radcliffe Hospital has 743 car parking spaces available for the public, the Churchill 410, the Horton, in Banbury, 239, and the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre 205.

Visitors and patients can pay up to £7 for four hours at all of the trust’s hospitals. 

In 2014/15 Oxford University Hospitals raised £3,728,000 from car parking charges.

The trust says it 'manages' its car parks internally but contracts parking firm Mitie to 'monitor' parking at the JR, CH & Horton General Hospital.

In 2012/ 13 the trust had 835,448 outpatient appointments at its hospitals as well as 186,587 emergency and elective inpatient admissions and delivering 8,777 babies.

Independent Oxfordshire watchdog Patient Voice spokeswoman Jacqueline Pearce-Gervis said before Christmas that in recent months parking at both hospitals had been ‘abysmal’ and said it would help alleviate the problem if the John Radcliffe staff car park was moved elsewhere.